A method of implementing a p-cycle protection scheme for a communications network comprising a plurality of nodes and interconnecting communications links along which Ethernet traffic is forwarded in a connection-oriented manner. The method comprises for each said Ethernet node in the communications network determining a label associated with each connection-oriented Ethernet path along one or more links in said communications network for which an entry exists in a forwarding table of Ethernet switching apparatus located at said Ethernet node and mapping a plurality of said paths individually identified by said respective labels, to another path defining a p-cycle between logically adjacent nodes in said communications network, wherein each said p-cycle is provisioned in the same layer as said Ethernet traffic.