Patent ID: 7924746
Filing Date: 2011-04-12
Classification: H04J,H04L

Abstract:
1. An apparatus comprising: a first interface that is configured to be coupled to an optical control plane of an optical network operations center (NOC) in an optical network having an optical domain managed by the optical NOC, wherein the first interface resides in the optical domain and facilitates communication to and from the optical NOC; a second interface that is configured to be optically coupled to a Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) optical interface of a packet network device that resides in a packet network domain of a packet network, wherein the packet network device is normally managed by a packet network NOC via a packet network control plane and is configured to convert packet network traffic destined for the optical domain into optical traffic, and to convert optical traffic destined for the packet network domain into packet network traffic via optical signals that cross a packet network-optical network boundary that separates control functions of the packet network domain and control functions of the optical domain; a logical interface coupled to the optical NOC, wherein the logical interface is configured to act as a proxy in the optical domain for the WDM optical interface of the packet network device by interfacing signals across the packet network-optical boundary from the optical domain into the packet network domain and to translate a request from the optical NOC comprising configuration parameters in order to configure the WDM optical interface of the packet network device via the optical domain; and a communication path configured to exchange signals between the packet network device and the optical NOC in order to provision the WDM optical interface for communication with the second interface according to the configuration parameters.