Customized, baselined optical network, and applications thereof

A method for pre-configuring a distributed optical transport network system, comprising:

• creating a performance baseline representing a performance of an optical transport network apparatus on setup, the optical transport network apparatus comprising:
• a plurality of optical network elements, each configured to be installed at a corresponding location in at least one server rack in a data center, and
• a plurality of patch cords, each of the plurality of patch cords (i) configured to optically connect at least two of the plurality of optical network elements and (ii) cut to a length based on corresponding locations of a respective optical network interface card and a respective optical switch;
• and
• retrieving runtime performance information from a plurality of optical network interface cards and a plurality of optical switches during runtime;
• comparing the runtime performance information and the performance baseline against a user-defined rule;
• and
• when the performance information and the performance baseline satisfy the user-defined rule, triggering an action to remediate a performance issue on the optical transport network apparatus.

A pre-configured distributed network system, comprising:

• a physical-layer network apparatus, comprising:
• a plurality of network elements, each configured to be installed at a corresponding location in at least one server rack in a data center, and
• a plurality of fiber patch cords, each of the plurality of patch cords (i) configured to communicatively connect at least two of the plurality of network elements and (ii) cut to a length based on the corresponding locations of the respective network elements;
• and
• a controller configured to (i) create a performance baseline representing a performance of a transport network apparatus on setup;
• (ii) retrieve runtime performance information from a plurality of network interface cards and a plurality of switches during runtime;
• (iii) compare the runtime performance information and the performance baseline against a user-defined rule;
• and (iv) when the performance information and the performance baseline satisfy the user-defined rule, trigger an action to remediate a performance issue on the transport network apparatus.