What is a Protection Group (APS)

This post defines the term Protection Group, for Automatic Protection Switching (APS) purposes.


What is a Protection Group for APS (Automatic Protection Switching) Purposes?

ITU-T G.808 Defines the Protection Group as:  

The collection of head-end and tail-end functions, 1 to n normal traffic signals, optionally an extra traffic signal, 1 to n working transport entities, and a single protection transport entity used to provide extra reliability for the transport of normal traffic signals.

What does all that mean?

The Protection Group comprises components and connections that work together to enhance the reliability of a transmission/network system for a Normal Traffic Signal by implementing Automatic Protection Switching.

Further, the Protection Group for a transmission/networking system consists of all the following items/entities.

The Protection Group enhances the reliability and protects 1 to N numbers of Normal Traffic Signals.

The Protection Group can either support Unidirectional or Bidirectional protection switching.

Figure 1 presents the Illustration of a 1+1 Protection scheme that I have modified to show the various elements within a Protection Group.

Protection Group - 1+1

Figure 1, Illustration of a 1+1 Protection Scheme that also identifies the Protection Group.

Likewise, Figure 2 illustrates a 1:2 Protection scheme that I have modified to show the various elements within the Protection Group.

Protection Group - 1:N

Figure 2, Illustration of a 1:2 Protection Scheme that also identifies the Protection Group.

In both cases, Figures 1 and 2 show numerous components within a shaded box.

All the items within the shaded box (in each figure) make up the Protection Group.

I discuss the individual components that make up the Protection Group in other posts within this post.

In Summary:

A Protection Group is a system that consists of the following items/entities:

Each of these components works together, using Automatic Protection Switching to enhance the transport path’s reliability for a given Normal Traffic Signal.

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