An optical network as a single managed entity

The present invention provides a method for adjusting an operating parameter of a node in an optical network which comprises a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of: measuring at the node a value of at least one characteristic associated with the operating parameter of the node; distributing the value of the characteristic to all of the other nodes in the network; receiving at the node the value of the characteristic for all of the other nodes in the network; deriving at the node optical impairment data for each link of the network based on the received values of the characteristic for all of the nodes; calculating at the node the preferred value of the operating parameter for each node based on the derived optical impairment data ; and adjusting the operating parameter of the node based on the calculated preferred value for the node.