A computer-implemented method for use in simulating an optical communication system comprising: receiving an example network configuration record, the example network configuration record comprising network topology information indicating a topology of network elements in the optical communication system, network alarm information specifying alarms that may be raised by network elements in the optical communication system, network event information specifying events that may be raised by network elements in the optical communication system, and network command specifications specifying commands that may be sent by a network management application to the optical communication system; receiving an example network operation record, the example network operation record comprising network alarm alerts and network event alerts corresponding to notifications of alarms and events, respectively, that would be received in an operation of the simulated optical communication system given the example network configuration record, and network alarm data and network event data comprising payload information for alerts describing the alarms corresponding to the network alarm information and the events corresponding to the network event information, respectively; generating a network operation model using a machine learning component based on the example network configuration record as an example input and the example network operation record as an example output, the network operation model configured to produce monitoring information that the network management application would be presented given a particular configuration of a network, set of commands into the network, and events within the network; receiving a system-test network configuration record, and generating a system-test network operation record based on the system-test network configuration record using the network operation model. receiving an example network configuration record, the example network configuration record comprising network topology information indicating a topology of network elements in the optical communication system, network alarm information specifying alarms that may be raised by network elements in the optical communication system, network event information specifying events that may be raised by network elements in the optical communication system, and network command specifications specifying commands that may be sent by a network management application to the optical communication system; receiving an example network operation record, the example network operation record comprising network alarm alerts and network event alerts corresponding to notifications of alarms and events, respectively, that would be received in an operation of the simulated optical communication system given the example network configuration record, and network alarm data and network event data comprising payload information for alerts describing the alarms corresponding to the network alarm information and the events corresponding to the network event information, respectively; generating a network operation model using a machine learning component based on the example network configuration record as an example input and the example network operation record as an example output, the network operation model configured to produce monitoring information that the network management application would be presented given a particular configuration of a network, set of commands into the network, and events within the network; receiving a system-test network configuration record, and generating a system-test network operation record based on the system-test network configuration record using the network operation model.