Patent ID: 8041217

Claim:
A method for managing wavelength drift in an optical network, comprising: receiving traffic in one or more optical channels transmitted by one or more transmitters, each channel having successive timeslots, each transmitter assigned to transmit in a channel in allocated timeslots in the channel; determining whether the traffic received in a particular channel in a particular timeslot was transmitted by one of the transmitters that was not assigned to transmit in the particular channel by determining that the traffic received in the particular channel comprises noise; if the traffic in the particular channel was transmitted by one of the transmitters that was not assigned to transmit in the particular channel: identifying the transmitter that was not assigned to transmit but that did transmit in the particular channel by: determining that a transmitter was assigned to but did not transmit in another channel and was allocated the same timeslot in the other channel as the timeslot in which noise was received in the particular channel; and based at least in part on the determination that the transmitter did not transmit in the other channel in that allocated timeslot, determining that that transmitter is the transmitter that was not assigned to transmit but that did transmit in the particular channel; assigning the identified transmitter to transmit in the particular channel; and allocating timeslots in the particular channel to the identified transmitter; and encouraging a transmitter that was not assigned to transmit in the particular channel to transmit in the particular channel by affecting the temperature of the transmitter.