Abstract: Dynamic optical wavebands are disclosed that allow a plurality of user streams having a common destination node to be positioned in a substantially adjacent non-overlapping manner on a spectrum for treatment as a routable entity. Each waveband has an associated center wavelength and spectral extent. The plurality of user streams can optionally be encrypted using a corresponding cipher. Wavebands that are received by a network node are filtered so that individual wavebands can be isolated, if necessary. For example, individual wavebands can be switched to an appropriate output node for forwarding in the optical network. In addition, the center wavelength and spectral extent of a waveband can be converted, if necessary, to position the waveband substantially spectrally adjacent to another waveband sharing a common path portion. In this manner, the substantially spectrally adjacent wavebands can be treated as an aggregated waveband for the common portion of a path.

Abstract: A method for maintaining the relative timing between each of a series of datastreams generated at a first site and transmitted to a second site including the steps of selecting a pulse generated by a clock having a time reference such as time-of-day and marking it with a descriptor. The descriptor and the time reference of the pulse are then transmitted to the second site. Next, a sample, that occurs after the pulse, is identified for each of the datastreams. An offset from the pulse to the next sample is then calculated for each of the datastreams. Next, the descriptor, a pointer to the next sample and the offset for each of the datastrearns is transmitted together with the corresponding datastreams to the second site. Using the pointer, the next sample in each of the datastreams is then located. Finally, the relative timing of each of the series of datastreams is reconstructed based on the next sample and the offset.