Agile Resource on Demand Service Provisioning in Software Defined Optical Networks

A network flow controller, comprising:

• a non-transitory memory storage comprising instructions;
• and
• one or more processors in communication with the memory storage, wherein the one or more processors execute the instructions to:
• receive a request for a first connection;
• and
• send, to one or more reconfigurable optical add-drop multiplexers (ROADMs) controlling one or first links an optical network portion of a communications network, commands to allocate bandwidth to the one or more first links in a route in the communications network for the first connection, the route routed according to conditions of the communications network.

The network flow controller of claim ii, wherein the one or more processors executing the instructions to optimize the allocation of the one or more channels comprises the one or more processors executing the instructions to:

• determine an unused optical bandwidth of a first channel carrying the one or more second connections passing through the one or more first links;
• determine an arrangement for a second channel with a modified optical bandwidth allocation for the first connection and the one or more of the second connections;
• and
• send commands to the one or more ROADMs to create the second channel and to transmit the first connection and the one or more second connections in the second channel.