Method and apparatus for protecting optical signals within a wavelength division multiplexed environment

An optical communications system, comprising:

• a first terminal receiving client signals, the first terminal including a P-for-N line protection group converting and rerouting the client signals into WDM signals, wherein N equals a total number of client signals received by the first terminal and P does not equal N;
• a second terminal;
• and
• optical communications paths configured to convey the WDM signals from the first terminal to the second terminal.

A method for protecting optical signals within a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) environment, comprising:

• providing client signals;
• routing the client signals through a P-for-N line protection group, where N equals the number of client signals and P does not equal N;
• converting the client signals to colored optical line signals;
• multiplexing the colored optical line signals to produce WDM optical signals;
• and
• detecting failures within the WDM environment, wherein routing includes rerouting multiple client signals through a common protection electrical to optical (E/O) converter in the P-for-N line protection group based upon failure detection.

An optical communication system, comprising:

• a first terminal with multiple client input interfaces receiving input client signals, the first terminal including multiple primary electrical to optical (E/O) line converters and a protection E/O line converter, said primary and protection E/O line converters converting electrical signals to colored optical line signals;
• a routing element directing and redirecting signals from the client input interfaces to the E/O line converters;
• optical directivity elements connected to an output of each of the E/O line converters, the optical directivity elements directing each colored optical line signal to at least two optical multiplexing units, the at least two optical multiplexing units each being used to multiplex the colored optical line signals output from the optical directivity elements into a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical signal;
• a second terminal receiving at least two WDM optical signals, the second terminal including:
• at least two optical de-multiplexing units each used to de-multiplex the associated received WDM optical signal into multiple colored optical line signals;
• multiple primary optical to electrical (O/E) line converters and a protection O/E line converter used to convert colored optical line signals to electrical signals;
• optical directivity elements connecting an input of each O/E line converter to an output of each optical de-multiplexer unit, the optical directivity elements being used to select one colored optical line signal from the optical de-multiplexers;
• multiple client output interfaces;
• and
• a routing element used to direct and redirect output client signals from the O/E line converters to the client output interfaces;
• and
• at least two optical communication fibers configured to convey the wavelength division multiplexed optical signals from the first terminal to the second terminal.