The disclosed apparatuses and methods are directed to embedding of virtual links in an optical network. The method comprises: receiving an adaptation request for a virtual link within a virtual network embedded on an optical substrate network; generating a plurality of candidate embeddings based on a topology of the substrate network and a current embedding of the virtual link, each candidate embedding satisfying the adaptation request; determining a total cost of each candidate embedding based on a disruption cost of the candidate embedding; and selecting, as a new embedding, a candidate embedding from the plurality of candidate embeddings in accordance with the determined total cost of the selected candidate embedding.