Patent ID: 7639944

Claim:
A method for protecting a cross-ring service in an optical network, wherein comprising the steps of: establishing a cross-ring protection path which bypasses an off-ring node or an on-ring node of a cross-ring working path on a ring, which comprises the steps of: selecting a first node, other than the off-ring node, on a first ring comprising a service transmitting node, and selecting a second node, other than the on-ring node, on a second ring comprising a service receiving node, the first node and the second node being located on the working path; and establishing the cross-ring protection path with the first node being as an origination node and the second node being as a termination node; and binding the cross-ring protection path and the working path, which comprises the step of: binding the cross-ring protection path and a corresponding protected section of the working path, wherein the origination node and the termination node of the protected section are respectively the first node and the second node, and the protected section comprises the off-ring node or the on-ring node.