| 摘要 |
A 2-fibre BLSR and a 4-fibre BLSR both have a disadvantage of bandwidth inefficiencies imposed due to SONET routing constraints, which specify that each routed connection must occupy the same STS time slot throughout a given ring in the network. A direct consequence of this limitation is that it produces "stranded bandwidth" around various spans of the ring. Accordingly, a network element is provided for use in a line switched ring network. The network element is configured to enable a ring switching protection scheme in a timeslot interchange environment, to help address the stranded bandwidth inefficiencies of ring networks. The network element comprises a connection for coupling the network element to a ring transport network. When timeslot interchange has been performed by the network element on the transport network, a comparison module is accessible by the network element and adapted to confirm a nodal identity of a switch request received by the network element from other network elements on the transport network, in response to a detected network failure. A timeslot interchange module is also accessible by the network element, which is adapted to document a timeslot interchange when performed by the network element between adjacent spans of the transport network. Accordingly, the network element when addressing the detected network failure can enable the timeslot interchange, based on the confirmed nodal identity, in association with a ring bridge for bridging between working and protection timeslots.
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