A protected point-to-point ACM communication system including at least a first component and a second component configured to provide live functionality and backup functionality for each other, at least a first receiver and a second receiver configured to receive an ACM transmission, one or more quality detectors configured to estimate quality of the received transmission of at least the first receiver and the second receiver, wherein at least one of the quality detectors is configured to estimate the quality of the received transmission using blind detection, and a controller configured to switch the live functionality of the protected point-to-point ACM communication system from one of the first component and the second component to another of the first component and the second component, based, at least partly, on the estimated qualities of the received transmissions of at least the first receiver and the second receiver. Related apparatus and methods are also described.