Patent ID: 7236699

Claim:
An optical core node comprising: a plurality of optical switching planes, at least two of said switch planes have different coverage indices, a coverage index of an optical switching plane being based on a number of input links and output links with which the optical switching plane communicates; a plurality of demultiplexers, each adapted to receive a signal on an input link, demultiplex said signal into a plurality of wavelength channels and connect at least one of said plurality of wavelength channels to at least one of said plurality of optical switching planes; and a core node controller adapted to receive a connection request, where said connection request specifies a specific input link, a specific output link, and a requested capacity, said core node controller operable to: identify a subset of optical switching planes, in said plurality or optical switching planes, where each of said optical switching planes in said subset has an unassigned path from said specific input link to said specific output link; and select a candidate optical switching plane, where said candidate optical switching plane has the least coverage index in said subset of optical switching planes.