Patent ID: 9712445
Date: 2017-07-18
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method for routing communications over a communication network, the method comprising: receiving a communications request to establish communications over a communication network; determining a communications path for routing the communications associated with the communications request; accessing network performance information associated with communications over the communications path, the network performance information including real-time bandwidth usage and non-real-time bandwidth usage; automatically determining whether at least one network node is impaired or congested along the communications path based on the network performance information; and adjusting communications through the at least one network node to reduce the impairment or congestion by identifying non-real-time communications along the communications path, selecting one or more non-real-time communications out of a plurality of non-real-time communications, based on service level agreements with one or more customers associated with the one or more non-real-time communications, and decreasing bandwidth available to the selected one or more non-real-time communications while maintaining bandwidth available to unselected non-real-time communications, wherein adjusting communications through the at least one network node to reduce the impairment or congestion includes determining whether the communications path has a capability of using a lower bandwidth CODEC; and modifying at least one communications on the communications path to utilize the lower bandwidth CODEC in response to determining the communications path has the capability of using the lower bandwidth CODEC to alleviate congestion.