A network protection switching mechanism comprises a plurality of optical switches located at a plurality of nodes; a plurality of optical communication paths between said switches; switch based fault detectors located as part of at least two switches which generate detection results representative of the identification of a fault; switch based controllers located as part of said at least two switches; and internal switch-communication means between said fault detectors and said controllers which facilitate the transmission of detection results from said fault detectors to said controllers; wherein said controllers directly cause switching to an alternative optical communication path dependent upon the receipt of said detection results; whereby autonomous switch based protection without dependence on either inter-switch control communication or higher level network control communication is achieved.