Abstract: Tis invention provides a ‘capacity slice’ nodal switching device (in the ADM-like sense) that is designed for deployment under the p-cycle concept. The device's key architectural properties are access, east and west interfaces, with one spare and working port, on each of these interface sides, plus at least two straddling side interfaces. The straddling side interfaces each have equal line capacity to those of east and west interfaces, but all are usable for working capacity. In application, the plug cards in the nodal switching device are supplied to provide up to two line signal units on the straddling side of the p-cycle device, per diverse span arriving at the site. Network level deployment and configuration of the devices requires that they be arranged in p-cycles.