Patent ID: 7546034

Claim:
A circuit arrangement for line protection of an optical data transmission link, comprising: at least two selectable data transmission lines, arranged between a transmitter side and a receiver side in a point-to-point network topology, through which optical signals can be transmitted via n data channels, having different frequencies; n network elements provided at the transmitter side to convert electronic data signals to optical signals; a multiplexer connected after each respective network elements for each data transmission line; a demultiplexer respectively assigned to each multiplexer on each data transmission line; a plurality of optical switches arranged on the transmitter side and receiver side, via which outputs of the demultiplexers are respectively assigned to one of the n data channels, the optical switches respectively switching the data transmission line to a respective input of n receiver side network elements for optical/electronic conversion, and wherein the optical switches on the transmitter side mirror positions of optical switches at the receiver side; an additional communication path between the receiver and transmitter sides in order to control the optical switches at the transmission at the transmission side; a controlling device that manages optical switches on the transmitter side; a monitoring device that manages optical switches at the receiver side and acts as a master to the controlling device, wherein, after the optical/electrical conversion occurs in the receiver side network element, the signal switched via one of the optical switches is respectively applied to the monitoring device for determining quality or power values of the data transmission, and wherein, using the quality or power values determined, the monitoring device directs the controlling device to switch the optical switch to a particular optical data transmission line with better quality.