Abstract: A network element, network switch, and/or a network element includes a control layer implemented over a physical layer. The network element, switch, and/or manager includes firmware to support particular processing to automate the establishment, modification, and/or deletion of communication links within the communication network, which includes processing that begins by generating a network manager command regarding a communication link between a 1st port and a 2nd port of the communication network. Upon receiving the command, the affiliated network element determines the type of network manager command and, when the network manager command is a command to establish a link, determines a network path between the 1st port and the 2nd port. Next, the affiliated network element generates a network element command regarding the link between the 1st and 2nd ports based on the determined network path and provides the network element command to the next network element in the determined network path.

Abstract: A network element, or network switch, includes a control layer implemented over a physical layer to support processing to automate the establishment, modification, and/or deletion of communication links within the communication network. In general, the network element may include firmware to support processing for establishing a path identifier that begins by establishing a communication link to include a plurality of network elements of the communication network. Each of the plurality of network elements is of a particular type of network element where like types of network elements are arranged into groups of network elements. The processing then continues by determining each grouping of network elements that are of the same type of network element that support the communication link to produce a set of groupings of network elements. The processing then continues by assigning a path identifier to the set of groupings of network elements.

Abstract: A network element, or network switch, includes a control layer implemented over a physical layer. The network element includes firmware for supporting a protected communication link in a communication network, where the supporting includes processing that begins by receiving a link command, which includes protection criteria (e.g., fully protected, unprotected/non-preemptable, unprotected and preemptable). The processing continues by determining a type of link command. When the type of link command is to establish a connection, the processing continues by determining whether the network element is a termination node for the communication link. When the network element is not a termination node, the processing continues by determining an optimal path for the communication link via a plurality of network elements based on the link protection criteria.

Abstract: A SONET network element or network switch includes a control layer implemented over a physical layer to automate the establishment, modification, and/or deletion of communication links within the communication network. In general, the network element may include firmware to support processing that begins by receiving a link command and determining the type of link command. When the type of link command is to establish a connection, the processing continues by determining whether the network element is a termination node of the communication link. When the network element is not a termination node of the communication link, the processing continues by determining an optimal path for the communication link via a plurality of network elements of the communication network. The processing continues by determining the type of path to the adjacent network element of the plurality of network elements.