Patent ID: 7706257

Claim:
A protection method for ring network of an optical transmission network, comprising using the overhead bytes APS or PCC in an ODUk to transmit the protection switching reformation of the APS, wherein a serial number field is added to the APS/PCC, and the method further comprises: changing the serial number of a current transmission direction of a network element according to a set rule, and sending the changed serial number to other network elements through the serial number field in the APS/PCC; obtaining the serial number carried in the serial number field in the APS/PCC, and comparing the serial number with one stored in all opposed network element itself and corresponding to the network element by the opposed network element and if the two serial numbers accord with the set rule, determining that no overhead byte is lost, wherein a switch page number field is added in the APS/PCC the method further comprising: setting matching relations of the switch pages, sending its own switch page number to other network elements through the switch page number field in the APS/PCC by the network element; the switch page number carried by the APS/PCC, and determining whether the switch page corresponding to the switch page number matches one of the present network elements according to the matching relation of the switch pages, and if yes, performing the switch processing; otherwise, stopping processing the APS/PCC and sending a stop protocol to other network elements through the switch page number field to stop processing the APS/PCC protocol; and the method further comprising: each network element that received the stop protocol stopping processing the APS/PCC and sending the APS/PCC to other network elements hop by hop till the network element in which the protection switching takes place; the network element in which the protection switching takes place stopping processing the APS/PCC and sending a response message to the network element which initiates the stop protocol; after receiving the response message, the network element which initiates the stop protocol sending a start protocol identifying the start-up of the OTN ring network to other network elements through the switch page number field in the APS/PCC; each network element that received the start protocol beginning to process the APS/PCC and sending the APS/PCC to other network elements hop by hop till the network element in which the protection switching takes place.