US Patent 11553262 Resolving control conflicts among trunk protection links

Systems and methods for resolving control conflicts in trunk protection links are provided. A method, in one implementation, includes identifying control conflicts among Network Elements (NEs) in an Optical Multiplex Section (OMS). The OMS may have a plurality of trunk protection links arranged in parallel and a plurality of Trunk Protection Switches (TPSs). Also, the trunk protection links and TPSs are configured to create a distributed 1:N trunk protection arrangement. The method also includes resolving the control conflicts by auto-negotiating a primary instance associated with enabling a first set of control actions to be conducted along a primary path in the OMS and auto-negotiating one or more follower instances associated with enabling a second set of control actions to be conducted along one or more secondary paths in the OMS subsequent to the first set of control actions.