Providing protection for a network includes establishing a light-trail through a sequence of nodes of an optical network, where the sequence of nodes is coupled by a first fiber and by a second fiber. Traffic is communicated through a plurality of connections of the light-trail, where a connection is operable to communicate traffic from a source node of the sequence of nodes to one or more destination nodes of the sequence of nodes. A failure of the light-trail is detected. A protection light-trail corresponding to the light-trail is established. The traffic of the plurality of connections is communicated through the protection light-trail.