Patent ID: 8917591

Claim:
A network element comprising: a first plug-in unit comprising: a first client-side interface; and a first network-side interface communicatively coupled to the first client-side interface; a second plug-in unit communicatively coupled to the first plug-in unit via a mate link, the second plug-in unit comprising: a second client-side interface; and a second network-side interface communicatively coupled to the first client-side interface; and a management module configured to: provision the first network-side interface and the second network-side interface as members of a network-side protection group; provision the first client-side interface and the second client-side interface as members of a client-side protection group; designate one of the first network-side interface and the second network-side interface as an active network-side interface of the network-side protection group; designate as a standby network-side interface of the network-side protection group the network-side interface not designated as the active network-side interface; designate one of the first client-side interface and the second client-side interface as an active client-side interface of the client-side protection group; and designate as a standby client-side interface of the client-side protection group the client-side interface not designated as the active client-side interface; such that traffic ingressing on the active network-side interface egresses on the active client-side interface and traffic ingressing on the active client-side interface egresses on the active network-side interface.