Abstract: Based on the introduction of the general concept ofthe protection for optical access networks, the architecture of self-healing ring is discussed. Analysis of the features of 2 fiber bi-directional path switching ring are made. The calculating result shows that the number of switching time of 2 fiber Path switching ring is related to the number of nodes and independent of the transmitting direction of the traffic signal. According to the resultabove, issues on the application of the Self-Healing Ring for optical access networks are briefly discussed.

Key words: optical fiber communication networks, access networks, self-healing ring, path protection, number of automatic switching times