US Patent 10158448 Multilayer resource management and arbitration in transport networks

A method, implemented in a hybrid network element supporting switching at a plurality of layers, for multilayer resource management between the plurality of layers, includes operating a control plane at Layer N between a plurality of network elements in a network, wherein control plane signaling at the Layer N is processed at each network element in a path for a service in the network; and operating a resource management protocol at Layer N+1 with another network element in the network by injecting and extracting messages from and to the control plane into a data path in the Layer N+1, wherein a service at the Layer N+1 operates over the Layer N, and wherein the resource management protocol messages are processed at an originating network element and a terminating network element and not at intermediate network elements in the path.