Patent ID: 7054555

Claim:
A communication network having a plurality of optical communication devices connected with each other, comprising: uni-directional in-band control channels provided in every optical links leading from the output interfaces of one of adjoining first and second optical communication devices to the input interfaces of the other of the first and second optical communication devices, between the interfaces of the first and second optical communication devices along and for the every optical links; and an out-band control channel provided between the first and second optical communication devices, wherein the first and second optical communication devices include: control channel terminators for terminating the uni-directional in-band control channels and the out-band control channel; and optical link controllers for administering the every optical links by exchanging control messages through the control channel terminators, wherein the optical link controllers: administer individual optical link attribute tables for specifying the attribute items of the optical links and their attribute values individually for the every optical links; discover the attributes of the optical links by storing the individual optical link attribute tables in the control messages and exchanging them mutually, by comparing the attribute values for the every attribute items of the individual optical link attribute tables, and by collecting the common portions of the attribute values; set up the optical links, of which the discovery of the attributes has failed, in an initial state; set up the optical links, of which the discovery of the attributes has succeeded, in an usable state; and set up the optical links, of which no common portion of the attribute values has existed so that the discovery of the attributes has failed, as an error in an unusable state, thereby to perform the state administrations for the every optical links.