The example embodiment maintains {HEAD ~ a traffic engineering database} of {TAIL ~ values} representing characteristics of links in the network, through storage of integer values representing advertised optical signal capabilities of links between the multiple optical nodes 
The example embodiment maintains { HEAD ~ a traffic engineering database } of { TAIL ~ values } representing characteristics of links in the network , through storage of integer values representing advertised optical signal capabilities of links between the multiple optical nodes
OTH OTH OTH OTH HEAD HEAD HEAD HEAD HEAD HEAD HEAD HEAD REL TAIL TAIL TAIL TAIL TAIL OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH OTH