Patent ID: 7936663

Claim:
A method of protecting clear channel communications of STM-n or OC-n signals, the signals comprising overhead comprising, in the case of STM-n signals, Regeneration Section Overhead and Multiplex Section Overhead bytes, and, in the case of OC-n signals, Section and Line overheads, between a transmitting network element and a receiving network element in a subnetwork, the method comprising the steps of: duplicating, by the transmitting network element of the subnetwork, the STM-n or OC-n signals as duplicated signals at the transmitting network element of the subnetwork; transmitting the duplicated signals over a work path and over a different protection path without changing the overhead by transmitting the duplicated signals without processing of the overhead, each of the work path and the protection path comprising at least one further network element; and selecting, by the receiving network element of the subnetwork, the duplicated signals from one of the work path and the protection path at the receiving network element of the subnetwork.