Patent ID: 7450493

Claim:
A method of communicating protection-signaling information between cards in a network element, the method comprising: receiving an incoming signal at a first card of a network element from over a network; incorporating protection-signaling information obtained from the incoming signal into a first out-of-band signal; transmitting the first out-of-band signal with the protection-signaling information incorporated therein from the first card to a second card in the network element over a link between the cards; obtaining, by the second card, the protection-signaling information from the first out-of-band signal; incorporating, by the second card, the protection-signaling information obtained from the first out-of-band signal into a second out-of-band signal; and simultaneously transmitting, from the second card to the first card and to one or more other cards in the network element, the second out-of-band signal having incorporated therein the protection-signaling information obtained from the first out-of-band signal.