Ciena Corporation
Partial activation of a media channel on channel holder-based optical links

Abstract:

An optical network element includes an optical multiplexing/demultiplexing device forming a degree; a channel holder source connected to the optical multiplexing/demultiplexing device; and a controller configured to, responsive to provisioning a media channel on the degree, wherein the media channel is a contiguous portion of optical spectrum supporting N channels, N>1, cause allocation of optical filter bandwidth in the optical multiplexing/demultiplexing device for M channels in the media channel, M<N, cause provisioning of the M channels in the media channel, and cause configuration of N-M channel holders in the media channel from the channel holder source.