Odu path protection in a disaggregated otn switching system

A method for optical data unit (ODU) path protection, the method comprising:

• in a first optical transport network (OTN) switch connected to a working optical data unit (ODU) path and a protection ODU path from a second OTN switch,
• receiving, by a first ingress plug-in universal (PIU) module, ODUs from the second OTN switch via the working ODU path and transmitting Ethernet packets to an Ethernet fabric included in the first OTN switch;
• receiving, by a second ingress PIU module, the ODUs from the second OTN switch via the protection ODU path, the second ingress PIU module connected to the Ethernet fabric;
• receiving, by a first egress PIU module, the Ethernet packets from the Ethernet fabric;
• and
• in response to determining that a protection switch using the protection ODU path is to be performed on the working ODU path,
• performing, for the first OTN switch, the protection switch, including:
• receiving the Ethernet packets via the Ethernet fabric from the second ingress PIU module from the protection ODU path.