Patent ID: 7940699
Filing Date: 2011-05-10
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A method of generating a spanning tree for use in forwarding Ethernet-based data in a circuit-switched network comprising a set of Ethernet-enabled nodes and a set of non-Ethernet-enabled nodes, comprising the steps of: obtaining input information, the input information comprising a representation of the network, the set of Ethernet-enabled nodes in the network, and a set of demands; computing a spanning tree of the set of Ethernet-enabled nodes based on at least a portion of the input information such that the spanning tree substantially satisfies one or more performance requirements associated with the set of demands; and determining, based on the computed spanning tree, one or more physical routes in the circuit-switched network comprising at least a portion of the Ethernet-enabled nodes and at least a portion of the non-Ethernet-enabled nodes for use in forwarding at least a portion of the Ethernet-based data; wherein the spanning tree computation and the route determination are performed such that the computed spanning tree satisfies pairwise bandwidth requirements and, given the computed spanning tree that satisfies the pairwise bandwidth requirements, one or more feasible circuits in the circuit-switched network are identified for routing the Ethernet-based data.