Patent ID: 7039314

Claim:
A communication system for performing optical communications, comprising: (a) a WDM device for providing supervisory control channels for supervising optical communications, said supervisory control channels including a first optical supervisory channel whose transmission band falls outside of the transmission band for main optical signals, and a second supervisory channel whose transmission band falls in the transmission band for said main optical signals, said WDM device comprising: WDM transmitting means for wavelength-multiplexing and -demultiplexing said supervisory control channels and said main optical signals, incoming wavelength selection means coupled to an input side of said WDM transmitting means for selecting a first wavelength to receive an incoming signal of the second supervisory channel, outgoing wavelength selection means coupled to an output side of said WDM transmitting means for selecting a second wavelength to transmit an outgoing signal of the second supervisory channel, and supervisory control channel setting means for variably setting the second supervisory control channel according to given setting information, including independent selection of the first and second wavelengths for the incoming and outgoing signals of the second supervisory channel; and (b) a network managing device comprising: setting information indicating means for indicating the setting information for setting said supervisory control channels to said WDM device, the setting information including wavelength information that specifies which idle-band wavelength to select for use as the second optical supervisory channel at the supervisory control channel setting means, and operating state managing means for managing a network operating state.