AN ETHERNET PROTECTION SWITCHING SYSTEM

An Ethernet-protection-switch system comprising a first transceiver node having Ethernet ports and transmit/receive lines communicatively coupled to a respective one of the Ethernet ports. The Ethernet ports include one active-receive Ethernet port and at least one backup-receive Ethernet port. Each transmit/receive line carrying duplicates of a data packet sent from a communicatively coupled second transceiver node. The duplicated data packet input from a transmit/receive line to the active-receive Ethernet port is received at the first transceiver node. The duplicated data packet input from a transmit/receive line to a respective one of the at least one backup-receive Ethernet port is discarded at the first transceiver node. If the transmit/receive line inputting the duplicated data packet to the active-receive Ethernet port fails, one of the at least one backup-receive Ethernet ports begins to function as the active-receive Ethernet port. The first transceiver node is configured to output duplicated data packets from each of the Ethernet ports for transmission on each of the transmit/receive lines.