Patent ID: 7676154

Claim:
A method of configuring a connection-oriented packet network over a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical network without an optical control layer, the WDM network including a first terminal device and a second terminal device, each terminal device including WDM electro-optic interfaces, the WDM network having a photonic layer connecting the WDM electro-optic interfaces, the photonic layer including a plurality of photonic layer elements including optical fibers, and wherein the photonic layer provides a plurality of lightpaths between the terminal devices, each lightpath traversing a set of the photonic layer elements, the method comprising the steps of: associating a geographic loci with each of said photonic layer elements; defining a multilink trunk between said first terminal device and said second terminal device; selecting a first lightpath to aggregate to said multilink trunk, said first lightpath traversing a first set of said photonic layer elements, said first set of photonic layer elements having a first set of associated geographic loci; and selecting a second lightpath to aggregate to said multilink trunk, said second lightpath traversing a second set of said photonic layer elements, said second set of photonic layer elements having a second set of associated geographic loci, wherein said step of selecting said second lightpath includes selecting said second lightpath on the basis that said second set of geographic loci is incongruent with said first set of geographic loci; and wherein said step of associating includes identifying photonic elements sharing a common geographic loci and building an association between such elements, and wherein said step of selecting said second lightpath includes selecting said second lightpath on the basis that said second set of photonic layer elements is not geographically associated with said first set of photonic layer elements.