Patent attributes
Systems and methods for allocating optical circuits on optical mesh networks are disclosed herein. For example, the disclosed methods include identifying a new circuit to be added to a mesh optical network and identifying a set of potential paths for the new circuit. For each optical link in each identified potential path, costs are determined for a plurality of frequency slots of allocating the new circuit to a potential path including the optical link. The cost of allocating a given frequency slot on a given optical link is determined in part based on the lengths of optical circuits that can traverse the given optical link using that frequency slot. Total cost values are calculated for allocating available frequency slots over each of the identified potential paths, and one of the identified potential paths and one or more of the available frequency slots are allocated for the new circuit.
