Patent ID: 7110670

Claim:
A virtual photonics switching system comprising: multiple photonics network elements comprising photonics network nodes and photonics network switches; optical fibers connecting the photonics network elements; and an O-UNI server optically connected to at least one of the photonics network elements including: at least one memory for storing information pertaining to photonics network nodes registered with the O-UNI server; a communication circuit for receiving a connectivity request from a first registered photonics network node for a connection with a second registered photonics network node; and connection logic for determining compatibility of the first and second registered photonics network nodes; the communications circuit providing instructions to photonics network switches upon verifying compatibility of the first and second registered photonics network nodes to search for an end-to-end wavelength path and establish the connection between the first registered photonics network node and the second registered photonic network node.