A method for priority-based protection includes assigning a priority to each of a plurality of flows associated with a plurality of working paths, wherein each of the plurality of the flows has a unique priority. Preferably, the continuous fibers are glass fibers. The local oscillator signal is selected to frequency translate the signal of interest to within a near-baseband passband whose lower edge is spaced from DC by at least about the maximum bandwidth of the signal of interest. The small FOV may maximize detection of the cloud.