Patent ID: 7379457

Claim:
A method for implementing a virtual private optical switched transport network using virtual private optical cross-connect technology, the method comprising the steps of: partitioning a network into a plurality of private switch partitions, wherein the plurality of partitions are connected to each other via backbone links including one or more channels for communicating routing update information; assigning each partition to a customer, wherein each partition is capable to be assigned to another customer without changing the private address assigned to the partition and used by a customer for requesting optical connectivity; establishing a private switched network by allowing each customer to exclusively control each respectively assigned partition and assign a private address to the partition, wherein each partition comprises at least one virtual private optical cross connect for virtualizing at least one resource, wherein the network comprises a plurality of optical time division multiplexing cross connects; adjusting bandwidth associated with the private switched network based on at least one of an addition and a removal of at least one site to the at least one virtual private optical cross connect; and provisioning customer optical connections at real time using label switch paths, wherein the optical connections is represented as a forwarding adjacency.