1. In an optical networking apparatus having a plurality of multi-protocol optical networking modules (MPONM), each having a plurality of programmable filter resources, a method of operation comprising: a first networking application, in response to a first need to have a first filter operation performed in a first MPONM, requesting one or more externalized functions of a MPONM application programming interface (API) to cause the first filter operation to be performed by one of a plurality of programmable filter resources of the first MPONM, including with the operation request a first handle of a first data structure implicitly identifying the first MPONM; and the API determining a first filter resource to perform the first filter operation, generating a second handle of the first data structure implicitly identifying the first filter resource, and returning the second handle to the requesting first networking application.