Abstract: A ring-mesh network architecture is provided for increasing the working/protection bandwidth ratio (W/PBR) of transport networks. The ring-mesh network has mesh connections between some nodes, the traffic on the mesh connections being unprotected. This increases the W/PBR from the current 1:2 value to (n?2)/(n?1), where n is the number of nodes, (n?1) is the number of connections on each node and (n?2) is the number of working connections on each node for one direction of traffic. Ring-mesh networks with add/drop multiplexers in the mesh connection are also provided.

Abstract: A network architecture is provided for increasing the working/protection bandwidth ratio (W/PBR) in the transport networks. The balanced network provides for a plurality of arm networks between two nodes of interest, the arms having identical bandwidth allocation for the add/drop, passthrough and protection traffic. In the case of a failure on an arm, the affected traffic is equally distributed in the protection bandwidth of the unaffected arms. The add/drop and passthrough traffic of the unaffected arms is also re-balanced between the unaffected arms.