Methods, apparatus and systems for signaling information between an optical
cross-connect switch and attached network equipment such as Internet
Protocol (IP) routers, WDM terminals, SONET add/drop multiplexers and ATM
switches. In one embodiment, an out-of-band signaling interface between an
optical cross-connect switch and attached network equipment is realized by
using an out-of-band communication channel over a network. In another
embodiment, a decentralized signaling interface is provided by one or more
dedicated signal lines between an optical cross-connect switch and
attached network equipment.
