Method and system for protection switching in a telecommunications network

A system for protection switching in a telecommunications network, comprising:

• a routing terminal comprising an east circuit pack and a west circuit pack;
• a primary line operable to deliver a primary traffic stream to the east circuit pack, the primary traffic stream comprising a plurality of primary sub-streams each having an associated priority level and an associated status indicator;
• a secondary line operable to deliver a secondary traffic stream to the west circuit pack, the secondary traffic stream comprising a plurality of secondary sub-streams each having an associated priority level and an associated status indicator, each primary sub-stream corresponding to a redundant secondary sub-stream;
• and
• the routing terminal further comprising:
• a sub-stream segmenter operable to segment the sub-streams into a plurality of segments based on the priority levels for the sub-streams, each segment comprising sub-streams having a same priority level, and
• a traffic selector operable to compare, for each segment, the status indicator for each primary sub-stream in the segment to the status indicator for the corresponding secondary sub-stream in accordance with the priority level for the sub-streams of the segment.

A routing terminal operable to provide protection switching in a telecommunications network, comprising:

• an east circuit pack operable to receive a primary traffic stream, the primary traffic stream comprising a plurality of primary sub-streams each having an associated priority level and an associated status indicator;
• a west circuit pack operable to receive a secondary traffic stream, the secondary traffic stream comprising a plurality of secondary sub-streams each having an associated priority level and an associated status indicator;
• a sub-stream segmenter operable to segment the sub-streams into a plurality of segments based on the priority levels for the sub-streams;
• each segment comprising sub-streams having a same priority level, the priority level for the sub-streams of the first segment comprising the highest priority level;
• and
• a traffic selector operable to compare the status indicators for the primary sub-streams to the status indicators for the corresponding secondary sub-streams and operable to compare, for each segment, the status indicator for each primary sub-stream in the segment to the status indicator for the corresponding secondary sub-stream in accordance with the priority level for the sub-streams of the segment.