A method (400, 500) of forwarding a digital signal received in an optical network, the method comprising: receiving (450, 550) duplicates of the digital signal, wherein the digital signal is arranged into portions with each portion containing a timestamp and an error detection code, wherein the error detection codes are cyclic redundancy check, CRC, codes, and the duplicates are received as a first digital signal on a first optical path of the optical network and a second digital signal on a second optical path of the optical network that is separate to the first optical path; identifying (460, 560) corresponding timestamps in the first and second digital signals; using (470, 570) identified corresponding timestamps to synchronize corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals such that corresponding timestamps are synchronized; using (480, 580) at least one of the error detection codes to select one and only one of the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals for forwarding, wherein using (480, 580) at least one of the error detection codes to select one and only one of the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals for forwarding comprises determining whether or not the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals are identical and, if the corresponding portions are not identical, using the error detection codes in both corresponding portions to determine errors in the corresponding portions and selecting the corresponding portion of the digital signal containing the least errors; and forwarding (490, 590) the selected portions of the first and second digital signals thereby forwarding the digital signal. receiving (450, 550) duplicates of the digital signal, wherein the digital signal is arranged into portions with each portion containing a timestamp and an error detection code, wherein the error detection codes are cyclic redundancy check, CRC, codes, and the duplicates are received as a first digital signal on a first optical path of the optical network and a second digital signal on a second optical path of the optical network that is separate to the first optical path; identifying (460, 560) corresponding timestamps in the first and second digital signals; using (470, 570) identified corresponding timestamps to synchronize corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals such that corresponding timestamps are synchronized; using (480, 580) at least one of the error detection codes to select one and only one of the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals for forwarding, wherein using (480, 580) at least one of the error detection codes to select one and only one of the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals for forwarding comprises determining whether or not the corresponding portions of the first and second digital signals are identical and, if the corresponding portions are not identical, using the error detection codes in both corresponding portions to determine errors in the corresponding portions and selecting the corresponding portion of the digital signal containing the least errors; and forwarding (490, 590) the selected portions of the first and second digital signals thereby forwarding the digital signal.