Automatic connection discovery and connection verification

An apparatus comprising:

• a network interface configured to communicate with computing devices in one or more computer networks;
• and
• a processor coupled to the network interface, the processor configured to:
• cause the network interface to provide a measurement schedule to a plurality of network elements, the measurement schedule indicating a predetermined time to sample optical ports of each network element in the plurality of network elements;
• obtain a plurality of measurement results from the plurality of network elements via the network interface, each particular measurement result of the plurality of measurement results associated with a particular optical port of a particular network element among the plurality of network elements;
• cross-correlate the plurality of measurement results to determine one or more direct connections between optical ports on corresponding pairs of network elements among the plurality of network elements;
• and
• cause the network interface to provide a notification to at least one administrative device, the notification indicating the one or more direct connections.

One or more non-transitory computer readable storage media encoded with software comprising computer executable instructions that, when the software is executed on a computing device, is operable to cause a processor of the computing device to:

• provide a measurement schedule to a plurality of network elements, the measurement schedule indicating a predetermined time to sample optical ports of each network element in the plurality of network elements;
• obtain a plurality of measurement results from the plurality of network elements, each particular measurement result of the plurality of measurement results associated with a particular optical port of a particular network element among the plurality of network elements;
• cross-correlate the plurality of measurement results to determine one or more direct connections between optical ports on corresponding pairs of network elements among the plurality of network elements;
• and
• provide a notification to at least one administrative device, the notification indicating the one or more direct connections.