US Patent 7711270 Optical node and optical add/drop multiplexer

The optical node connects N networks to each other (where N is an integer larger than one). Each of the N networks respectively includes a first transmission path and a second transmission path. The optical node includes a switching unit that connects the first transmission path of one network of the N networks to other (N−1) networks; a failure detector that detects failure in the first transmission path of the network; and a control unit that causes the switching unit to connect the second transmission path of the network to the other (N−1) networks when the failure is detected.