A method of network communications includes determining an access identifier (AID) for an egress signal through a network interface of a network element, an Optical Transport Network (OTN) multiplexing structure identifier (MSI) associated with the egress signal through the network interface, another AID associated with a defined ingress signal through the network interface, another OTN MSI associated with the defined ingress signal through the network interface, and associating the egress signal and the defined ingress signal based on the AIDs and OTN MSIs. The first OTN MSI is not equal to the second OTN MSI.