This paper points out that we must consider to calculate the optical signal-to-noise ratio(OSNR) of the longest optical path resulted from protection switching in the design of the optical ring network. A new formula to estimate OSNR for the link with cascaded OADM/OXC nodes in optical network is presented. After comparing a set of OSNR results
we put forward a model for the lowest OSNR under protection switching and a method of designing ring network based on the model
deduce the calculation of OSNR validation in the design of the project.