US Patent 11296812 Out-of-band communication channel for subcarrier-based optical communication systems

In an example method, an edge transceiver receives a first message from a hub transceiver over a first communications channel of an optical communications network, including an indication of available network resources on the optical communications network. The edge transceiver transmits, over a second communications channel of the optical communications network, a second message to the hub transceiver, including an indication of a subset of the available network resources selected by the edge transceiver. The edge transceiver receives, from the hub transceiver, a third message acknowledging receipt of a selection by the edge transceiver and a fourth message confirming an assignment of the selected subset of the available network resources to the edge transceiver. The edge transceiver transmits, using the selected subset of the available network resources, data via the hub transceiver.