Suspension of traffic re-routing during planned network interruption

A transport equipment, comprising:

• multiple client interfaces connected to multiple router interfaces associated with at least one router;
• multiple transport cards configured to convert outgoing digital data to outgoing optical signals, and to convert incoming optical signals to incoming digital data;
• an optical multiplexer connected between the multiple transport cards and multiple optical fibers associated with an optical network;
• and
• a processor, connected between the multiple client interfaces and the multiple transport cards, and configured to:
• receive a message, from a transport management system, that includes a notification of a planned network interruption affecting traffic sent or received via at least one of the multiple optical fibers, wherein the message includes a scheduled time, and a scheduled duration, of the planned interruption,
• instruct one or more of the multiple client interfaces or one or more of the multiple transport cards, associated with the at least one of the multiple optical fibers, to buffer data, at the scheduled time, to be sent over the at least one of the multiple optical fibers, and
• instruct, subsequent to expiration of the scheduled duration, the one or more of the multiple client interfaces or the one or more of the multiple transport cards to retrieved buffered data and send the data towards its respective destination via the at least one of the multiple optical fibers.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium containing instructions executable by at least one processor of an optical transport equipment, the computer-readable medium comprising:

• one or more instructions for receiving, at the optical transport equipment in an optical network, a notification indicating a planned interruption in the optical network, wherein the notification includes a time of the planned interruption and a loss of signal duration associated with the planned interruption;
• one or more instructions for identifying one or more optical interfaces of the optical transport equipment coupled to one or more optical links affected by the planned interruption;
• one or more instructions for causing the identified one or more optical interfaces to send, during a time period derived from the time of the planned interruption and the loss of signal duration and responsive to receiving the notification, dummy data blocks to one or more routers connected to the one or more optical interfaces such that the one or more routers do not perceive any communication interruption during the planned interruption and do not engage in a re-routing related to the planned interruption;
• and
• one or more instructions for causing, by the one or more optical interfaces, during the time period, buffering of data to be transmitted on the one or more optical links affected by the planned interruption.