Patent ID: 8705971

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, in a first pass from a first node to an end node, available wavelengths and available wavelength conversion resources at each node of one or more intermediate nodes; optimizing a selection of a preferred path and a backup path, by the end node in the first pass from the first node to the end node, in accordance with the available wavelengths and wavelength conversion resources, the backup path maximizing sharing; dropping, in a second pass from the end node to the first node, a cross-connect command at each node of the one or more intermediate nodes; marking a wavelength as failed in the second pass from the end node to the first node; selecting, by the first node, in the second pass from the end node to the first node, wavelengths for connection based on the optimizing and based on the marked failed wavelength; receiving, in a third pass from the first node to the end node, a signal message and releasing unused cross-connect commands at the first node and each of the one or more intermediate nodes; identifying by the end node, in the third pass from the first node to the end node, the selected wavelengths and releasing unused resources; and transmitting a signal on the selected wavelengths.