Equipment protection method and apparatus

A network element comprising multiple line cards and a switch matrix controllably interconnecting said line cards;

• said switch matrix comprising a number of matrix modules;
• said network element further comprising
• a slicer for slicing an signal to be switched from a first line card to second line card into k parallel signal slices with k>2;
• a signal encoder connected in front of said switch matrix for coding said k signal slices into a number of n coded signal slices using an error correcting code with n>k+1 to add redundancy to said input signal;
• and
• a signal decoder connected behind of said switch matrix for decoding said n coded signal slices into k decoded signal slices to correct errors introduced while passing through said switch matrix,
• wherein said signal encoder is connected to said switching matrix such that said n coded signal slices pass through said switching matrix via n distinct matrix modules, wherein said signal decoder comprises two or more equation solvers, a selector for selecting one of said equation solvers and a controller for configuring said selector in dependence of additional information about defective matrix modules.