Optical networking equipment, namely, optical terminal nodes consisting of dense wavelength division multiplexing transponders, optical multiplexers and demultiplexers, optical amplifiers, optical switches, variable optical attenuators, and fixed and tunable dispersion compensators; optical amplifier nodes consisting of optical amplifiers, variable optical attenuators, and dispersion compensators; optical add/drop nodes consisting of dense wavelength division multiplexing transponders, optical multiplexers and demultiplexers, optical amplifiers, optical switches, variable optical attenuators, and dispersion compensators; embedded optical networking interfaces consisting of tunable lasers, electronic multiplexers, optical modulators and optical receivers; and remote optical terminals consisting of dense wavelength division multiplexing transponders, optical multiplexers and demultiplexers, optical amplifiers, optical switches, variable optical attenuators, and fixed and tunable dispersion compensators