Patent ID: 7403473

Claim:
A network element for routing plural connections through a network, comprising: first and second sets of network interfaces for receiving and transmitting channels of network traffic; a set of predefined maps defining desired interconnections of selected channels at the first set of interfaces to selected channels at the second set of interfaces, the set of predefined maps defining sets of working interconnections for use when the network is in a working state and plural protection interconnections for use when the network is in respective fault states, wherein a selected subset of the set of predefined maps configures the network element for each protection mode of a plurality of protection modes; and plural switching elements connected between the first and second sets of network interfaces, the switching elements being configurable according to the predefined maps to interconnect selected channels at the first set of network interface to selected channels at the second set of network interfaces, the plural switching elements including at least one spare switching element to enable shared protection of the plural switching elements.