Patent ID: 8233791

Claim:
A method for providing virtual 1:N automatic protection switching (APS) for optical network interface equipment, the method comprising: configuring N optical network interface cards (ONICs) as working cards, each working card having sending and receiving optical interfaces, wherein N is an integer greater than 1; configuring a ONIC as a protection card having M optical interfaces, wherein M is an integer greater than or equal to N, the M optical interfaces providing redundant interface protection for at least one of the optical interfaces on each of the N working cards, wherein providing redundant interface protection includes maintaining a one to one ratio between the M optical interfaces and the optical interfaces on each of the N working cards being protected; and in response to detecting a failure of one of the N working cards or a failure of one of the optical interfaces on one of the N working cards, automatically sending or receiving, using a protecting interface on the protection card that is associated with the failed card or interface, optical networking communications that would have been sent to or received by the failed card or interface.