An amplified optical link having a fault-protection capability that is based, at least in part, on the ability to selectively and independently power up and down different groups of optical amplifiers within the link. In an example embodiment, the optical link is implemented using an optical fiber cable having an electrical power line and arrays of optical amplifiers connected between successive optical fiber segments to form a plurality of disjoint groups of parallel optical paths between the ends of the optical fiber cable. The electrical power line is operable to selectively power, as a group, the optical amplifiers of at least some of the disjoint groups. In various embodiments, different optical paths can be implemented using different respective strands of a single-core optical fiber, different respective cores of a multi-core optical fiber, and/or different respective sets of spatial modes of a multimode optical fiber.