Optimization of flow-control buffer allocation on optical interconnects

A network device, comprising:

• an optical transceiver with Digital Optical Monitoring (DOM) capability to transmit and receive optical signals, the optical transceiver coupled to a remote optical transceiver on a remote network device via an optical link;
• at least one processing resource;
• and
• at least one non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions executable by the processing resource to:
• obtain a local transmitter power measurement and a local receiver power measurement of the optical transceiver;
• receive, from the remote network device, a remote transmitter power measurement and a remote receiver power measurement of the remote optical transceiver;
• generate a first length estimation of the optical link based on the local transmitter power measurement and the remote receiver power measurement;
• and
• allocate a local headroom buffer based on the first length estimation of the optical link.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions executable to cause a node of an optical link to:

• obtain a local transmitter power measurement and a local receiver power measurement;
• receive, from a remote node of the optical link, a remote transmitter power measurement and a remote receiver power measurement;
• generate a first length estimation of the optical link based on the local transmitter power measurement and the remote receiver power measurement;
• and
• allocate a local headroom buffer based on the first length estimation of the optical link.