Methods and apparatus for processing a failure and a subsequent recovery in a ten Gigabit Ethernet (GE) optical transport network (OTN) wave division multiplexing (WDM) ring are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a device includes a plurality of ports, a sensing arrangement, and a processing arrangement. The ports include a first port that is initially configured to be in a forwarding state, and the sensing arrangement identifies whether the first port is facing or interfaced with a failure associated with the network ring. The processing arrangement being generates at least a first G.709 frame, and inserts at least one bit into the first G.709 frame that indicates that the failure associated with the network ring has been identified if the first port is facing a failure. The processing arrangement forwards the first G.709 frame through the second port.