Patent ID: 7577360

Claim:
A method of automatically generating a computer based layout of an optical communication network at a network planning computer system, wherein the method is executed from a computer readable storage medium accessible to the network planning computer system, the method comprising: receiving, at a network planning computer system, communications traffic demand forecast data related to an optical communication network; receiving, at the network planning computer system, network data corresponding to a deployed optical communication network; automatically generating, at the network planning computer system, a network plan corresponding to a modified optical communication network to be deployed, the network plan derived from the network data, the network plan constructed in response to performing a grooming operation including a first level of grooming at a first node of the modified network and a second level of grooming at a second node of the modified optical communication network; and providing the network plan to a display device; wherein a first threshold is used to perform traffic grooming at the first node and a second threshold is used to perform traffic grooming at the second node.