Asymmetric otn network traffic support

A network element comprising:

• a network interface;
• a memory;
• a first entry in the memory, including:
• an Access Identifier (AID) associated with an egress signal through the network interface;
• and
• an Optical Transport Network (OTN) multiplexing structure identifier (MSI) associated with the egress signal through the network interface;
• a second entry in the memory, including:
• an AID associated with a defined ingress signal through the network interface;
• and
• an OTN MSI associated with the defined ingress signal through the network interface, wherein the OTN MSI of the first entry is not equal to the OTN MSI of the second entry;
• and
• a processor communicatively coupled to the memory and configured to associate the first entry and the second entry based on the AID and the OTN MSI of the first entry and the AID and the OTN MSI of the second entry.