Optical link related wavekey information and other vendor specific information is distributed in a WDM network using an extension of the standard OSPF routing protocol. The extension makes use of a vendor attribute Link State Advertisement (LSA) which is a new type of opaque LSA. The vendor attribute LSAs include a Vendatt Link State Identifier (ID) field in the LSA header, and a Vendatt Type/Length/Value (TLV) structure. The Vendatt TLV includes a Vendatt-type field identifying the TLV as a Vendatt TLV, and an enterprise code field identifying the vendor whose equipment (node or network element) generates vendor attribute LSAs or is able to receive vendor attribute LSAs by the identified vendor. Vendor attribute LSAs of a specific vendor are designed to be ignored by nodes or network elements of other vendors.