Patent ID: 7200109

Claim:
A method for protecting frame relay traffic on a SONET ring, comprising: utilizing a protection frame, comprising: a node data for indicating an origination node; a direction data coupled to the node data, for indicating a direction in which a defect was detected on a working fiber path or a protection fiber path; a defect type data, coupled to the direction data, for indicating a type of defect detected; and a Synchronous Transport Signal (STS) number, coupled to the defect type data, for indicating a number of STS that was affected by the detected defect; detecting the defect during the frame relay traffic on the working fiber path or the protection fiber path on the SONET ring by a first node of a plurality of nodes; generating the protection frame from the first node; transmitting the protection frame from the first node to each of the plurality of nodes; and switching between the working fiber path and the protection fiber path at a location where the defect is detected.