A physical layer network element , comprising: a plurality of physical ports ; a network packet interface comprising a processor , the network packet interface configured to: inspect a network layer adjacency discovery message comprised in a bit stream received by the network packet interface , wherein the bit stream comprises network layer adjacency discovery messages and network layer maintenance messages, and the network layer adjacency discovery message is a broadcast message traversing the physical layer network element and comprises information of adjacent logical nodes operating at a network layer of the OSI model; map at least one of the physical ports to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes ; transmit or cause transmission of a physical layer adjacency discovery message that indicates physical layer port adjacency information; and transmit or cause transmission of an advertisement message at a physical layer, the advertisement message comprising mapping information of at least one of the physical ports mapped to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes , the advertisement message is transmitted to a transport software defined networking, SDN, controller to support creation of physical to logical topology mapping at the SDN controller . a plurality of physical ports ; a network packet interface comprising a processor , the network packet interface configured to: inspect a network layer adjacency discovery message comprised in a bit stream received by the network packet interface , wherein the bit stream comprises network layer adjacency discovery messages and network layer maintenance messages, and the network layer adjacency discovery message is a broadcast message traversing the physical layer network element and comprises information of adjacent logical nodes operating at a network layer of the OSI model; map at least one of the physical ports to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes ; transmit or cause transmission of a physical layer adjacency discovery message that indicates physical layer port adjacency information; and transmit or cause transmission of an advertisement message at a physical layer, the advertisement message comprising mapping information of at least one of the physical ports mapped to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes , the advertisement message is transmitted to a transport software defined networking, SDN, controller to support creation of physical to logical topology mapping at the SDN controller . inspect a network layer adjacency discovery message comprised in a bit stream received by the network packet interface , wherein the bit stream comprises network layer adjacency discovery messages and network layer maintenance messages, and the network layer adjacency discovery message is a broadcast message traversing the physical layer network element and comprises information of adjacent logical nodes operating at a network layer of the OSI model; map at least one of the physical ports to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes ; transmit or cause transmission of a physical layer adjacency discovery message that indicates physical layer port adjacency information; and transmit or cause transmission of an advertisement message at a physical layer, the advertisement message comprising mapping information of at least one of the physical ports mapped to at least one of the adjacent logical nodes , the advertisement message is transmitted to a transport software defined networking, SDN, controller to support creation of physical to logical topology mapping at the SDN controller . <EOS>