Flexgrid optical networks are attracting huge interest due to their higher spectrum efficiency and flexibility in comparison with traditional wavelength switched optical networks based on the wavelength division multiplexing technology. To properly analyze, design, plan, and operate flexible and elastic networks, efficient methods are required for the routing and spectrum allocation (RSA) problem. Specifically, the allocated spectral resources must be, in absence of spectrum converters, the same along the links in the route (the continuity constraint) and contiguous in the spectrum (the contiguity constraint). In light of the fact that the contiguity constraint adds huge complexity to the RSA problem,we introduce the concept of channels for the representation of contiguous spectral resources. In this paper, we show that the use of a pre-computed set of channels allows considerably reducing the problem complexity. In our study, we address an off-line RSA problem in which enough spectrum needs to be allocated for each demand of a given traffic matrix. To this end, we present novel integer lineal programming (ILP) formulations of RSA that are based on the assignment of channels. The evaluation results reveal that the proposed approach allows solving the RSA problem much more efficiently than previously proposed ILP-based methods and it can be applied even for realistic problem instances, contrary to previous ILP formulations.