REPRESENTATION OF THE PHYSICAL DEGRADATIONS IN AN OPTICAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK

To produce a representation of the physical degradation in an optical communication network comprising transparent switching nodes (1, 2, 3, 4) mutually connected by optical links (11, 12, 21, 22, 31, 32, 41, 42), the method involves: Associating a pair of counter-directional optical links as a bi-directional link (10, 20, 30, 40), Providing at least one respective physical degradation parameter for each of said counter-directional optical links of said pair, Determining at least one physical degradation parameter characteristic of said bi-directional link from said physical degradation parameters of the counter-directional optical links of said pair, Storing a descriptor of the bi-directional link comprising said at least one physical degradation parameter characteristic of said bi-directional link.