Ethernet Automatic Protection Switching (EAPS) is used to create a fault tolerant topology by configuring a primary and secondary path for each VLAN.

Invented by Extreme Networks and submitted to IETF as RFC3619. The idea is to provide highly available Ethernet switched rings (commonly used in Metro Ethernet) to replace legacy TDM based transport protection fiber rings. Other implementations include Ethernet Protection Switching Ring (EPSR) by Allied Telesis which enhanced EAPS to provide full protected transport of IP Triple Play services (voice, video and internet traffic) for xDSL/FTTx deployments. EAPS/EPSR is the most widely deployed Ethernet protection switching solution deployed with major multi-vendor inter-operability support. The EAPS/EPSR are the basis of the ITU G.8032 Ethernet Protection recommendation.