Patent ID: 6885822

Claim:
An optical network comprising: first and second adjacent nodes, a first fiber configured to carry information in a clockwise direction from the first node to the second node, the first fiber having wavelength capacity allocated to working and protection traffic, the working and protection wavelength capacities in the first fiber being respectively assigned to first and second sets of wavelengths, and a second fiber configured to carry information in a counter-clockwise direction from the second node to the first node, the second fiber having wavelength capacity allocated to working and protection traffic, the working and protection wavelength capacities in the second fiber being respectively assigned to the second and first sets of wavelengths, wherein the first and second sets of wavelengths are within a wavelength range, and a portion of the wavelength range is not assigned to either the first or second set of wavelengths, the unassigned portion being used to provide isolation between the working and protection wavelength capacities of each of the first and second fibers, wherein the wavelength range includes a plurality of bands allocated among the unassigned portion and the first and second sets of wavelengths, and one or more of the bands of the first set of wavelengths are interleaved with one or more of the bands of the second set of wavelengths, such that each band of the unassigned portion separates an interleaved band of the first set of wavelengths from an interleaved band of the second set of wavelengths.