The Cisco ONS 15454 Optical Service Channel (OSC) management cards are plug-in modules that take advantage of the proven Cisco ONS 15454 carrier-class features to maintain management connectivity for the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP intelligent DWDM network. The CISCO ONS 15454 Optical Service Channel card (OSCM) provides an inter-node communication channel for management and an User Data Channel (UDC FE framed), allowing network level communications to support intelligent DWDM implementation without the use of client transponder data communication overhead. This card is deployed in nodes with a Cisco ONS 15454 Optical Booster Amplifier card, which provides the combining and splitting of the OSC channel. This card provides integrated variable optical attenuators to leverage the Cisco ONS 15454 MSTP's intelligence to automatically control the power levels for the entire DWDM network.