Patent ID: 8165466

Claim:
An optical layer control plane for an agile optical network of a type provided with a management information base (MIB) and with an internal signaling and control network, comprising: a link management platform for monitoring and controlling operation of all network elements of an agile optical network, and for collecting MIB topology data pertinent to network elements; a processing platform comprising one or more controllers for monitoring and controlling operation of one or more shelves in said agile optical network at optical module granularity, and for collecting MIB topology data for all modules and shelves that make-up said agile optical network, said controllers serially connected over an optical topology channel (OTC) for enabling the link management platform to discover the current topology of said agile optical network; means for hierarchically distributing a unique internal address on said internal signaling and control network to each said module, shelf and network element; and a distributed topology system (DTS) for hierarchically organizing the topology data in said MIB to allow independent routing, switching and restoration functions for a connection.