Directionless optical architecture and highly available network and photonic resilience methods

A directionless switch method for high availability between switch or router ports, the method comprising:

• receiving at least two lightpaths from a client device;
• and
• selectively routing the at least two lightpaths to separate degrees of a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) node, wherein each of the separate degrees provides a link to an optical network;
• wherein the client device is not hard-wired to any of the separate degrees.

A client device method for high availability between switch or router ports using a directionless architecture, the method comprising:

• communicating traffic, on a first port and a second port, with an adjacent client device over an optical network, wherein the first port and the second port are selectively routed to separate degrees at a reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexer (ROADM) node over the optical network, wherein the first port and the second port are each not hard-wired to the separate degrees, and wherein each of the separate degrees provides a link to the optical network;
• responsive to a failure affecting the first port, rerouting the traffic, from the first port, to the second port;
• and
• responsive to recovery of the first port, rerouting some of the traffic from the second port to the first port.