Systems and methods for creating a spectrum assignment for use by an optical network element are provided. In one implementation, an optical network element may include line devices configured to communicate optical signals with external network elements along one or more degrees. The optical network element may also include add/drop devices configured to perform at least one of adding one or more optical channels to the optical signals and removing one or more optical channels to the optical signals. The line devices and add/drop devices are configured to receive control signals from a spectrum management controller, the control signals being configured to allocate a first spectrum assignment for routing the optical signals through the line devices and further configured to allocate a second spectrum assignment for routing the optical signals through the add/drop devices. For example, the second spectrum assignment may be different from the first spectrum assignment.