Launching new spectrum channels in fragmented optical bands

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor, cause the processing system to perform operations, the operations comprising:

• identifying a channel parameter and a distance for a new spectrum channel to be launched in an optical band in a fiber broadband network, wherein the optical band comprises a plurality of existing spectrum channels;
• calculating a spectral width for the new spectrum channel, based at least in part on the channel parameter and the distance;
• determining that a contiguous slice of the optical band is not available to support the spectral width for the new spectrum channel;
• identifying, in response to the determining, a set of candidate channels of the plurality of existing spectrum channels, wherein each candidate channel of the set of candidate channels is a standby channel for a main channel and wherein a predicted network traffic delay associated with a movement of each candidate channel of the set of candidate channels is less than a threshold delay;
• and
• marking a subset of candidate channels of the set of candidate channels for movement within the optical band, where a cumulative spectral width of the subset is at least equal to the spectral width for the new spectrum channel.

A system comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• identifying a channel parameter and a distance for a new spectrum channel to be launched in an optical band in a fiber broadband network, wherein the optical band comprises a plurality of existing spectrum channels;
• calculating a spectral width for the new spectrum channel, based at least in part on the channel parameter and the distance;
• determining that a contiguous slice of the optical band is not available to support the spectral width for the new spectrum channel;
• identifying, in response to the determining, a set of candidate channels of the plurality of existing spectrum channels, wherein each candidate channel of the set of candidate channels is a standby channel for a main channel and wherein a predicted network traffic delay associated with a movement of each candidate channel of the set of candidate channels is less than a threshold delay;
• and
• marking a subset of candidate channels of the set of candidate channels for movement within the optical band, where a cumulative spectral width of the subset is at least equal to the spectral width for the new spectrum channel.