System and method for increasing provisionable bandwidth in time-division multiplexed communication links

A method of increasing provisionable bandwidth in a multiplexed communication link, comprising:

• calculating a defragmentation of said communication link, said defragmentation containing at least one granularity;
• finding reduced cost candidate slots for said at least one granularity;
• and
• identifying target slots into which circuits occupying said candidate slots can be moved.

A network management system, comprising:

• a port couplable to an optical communication link;
• a processor, coupled to said port, for allocating time slots of said optical communication link to discrete communication channels;
• and
• a system for increasing provisionable bandwidth in said optical communication link, including:
• a defragmentation calculator that calculates a defragmentation of said optical communication link, said defragmentation containing at least one granularity,
• a candidate slot selector, associated with said defragmentation calculator, that finds reduced cost candidate time slots for said at least one granularity, and
• a circuit mover, associated with said candidate slot selector, that identifies target time slots into which circuits occupying said candidate time slots can be moved.