The present invention provides a mechanism and a method for indirectly controlling a router interface from an optical management system in an IP-optical network. A mechanism is provided for controlling a router interface from a management system indirectly, by using optical equipment as a proxy and communicating between the optical gear and router via a peer-to-peer signaling protocol. The present invention provides a management method that allows separate management systems for the optical layer and the IP layer and a method for managing the network across the domains.