A WDM bidirectional self-healing optical ring network is provided in which an outer ring network and an inner ring network can both handle N optical signals. The network includes a node; an optical add/drop multiplexer having a 1×N demultiplexer and a 1×N multiplexer; a pair of optical switching devices each connected to an optical fiber link intervening between the optical add/drop multiplexer and another node on the both ends of the optical add/drop multiplexer; and, a pair of circulators each connected between the optical add/drop multiplexer and a particular optical switching device in the optical switching device pair, each circulator having three ports, two of the three ports being connected to a corresponding optical switching device and remaining one port being connected to the optical add/drop multiplexer.
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