SWITCHING ON THE LIGHT

OPTICAL NETWORK ELEMENT HARDWARE, NAMELY SYSTEMS AND SUBSYSTEMS COMPRISED OF TRANSPONDERS, TRANSMITTERS, RECEIVERS, MULTIPLEXES, OPTICAL BAND AND WAVELENGTH FILTERS, AMPLIFIERS, OPTICAL SWITCHES AND ROUTERS, OPTICAL AND ELECTRICAL SIGNAL PERFORMANCE MONITORS,SYSTEM CONTROL AND MANAGEMENT MODULES; EMBEDDED OPTICAL NETWORK ELEMENT SOFTWARE, NAMELY, FIRMWARE THAT ADDS NETWORK INTELLIGENCE, FUNCTIONS AND FEATURES TO AFOREMENTIONED HARDWARE; AND OPTICAL NETWORK ELEMENT AND OPTICAL NETWORK MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE DEVELOPED FOR MONITORING, CONTROL, PROVISIONING, CONFIGURATION, RECONFIGURATION AND MANAGEMENT OF THE AFOREMENTIONED NETWORK ELEMENT HARDWARE AND FIRMWARE AS WELL AS THE OPTICAL NETWORKS RESULTING FROM THE INTERCONNECTION OF NETWORK ELEMENTS