Patent ID: 8553725

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, by a node, an instruction to establish a channel having a bandwidth that is based on an operating spectrum associated with one or more optical fibers served by the node; obtaining, by the node and as a result of the instruction, information that identifies a channel spacing and a pointer that identifies where, within the operating spectrum, to establish one or more bandwidth allocations; identifying, by the node, a plurality of bandwidth segments based on the operating spectrum and the channel spacing; generating, by the node, one or more bit words that correspond to the one or more bandwidth allocations to be used for the channel, where each of the one or more bit words includes a respective set of bits that, when set to a value, cause one or more sets of bandwidth segments, of the plurality of bandwidth segments, to be reserved within the operating spectrum, and where the one or more sets of bandwidth segments identify where the one or more bandwidth allocations begin and end, within the operating spectrum, relative to the pointer; transmitting, to a destination node, an instruction to establish the channel, where the instruction includes the pointer, the channel spacing, and the one or more bit words; and transmitting the traffic, to the destination node and via the channel, based on an indication that the destination node established the channel.