Patent ID: 7672586
Filing Date: 2010-03-02
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A communications system comprising: a communications network comprising network nodes and network links between the network nodes; and a network management system for allocating connections to the network, the connections utilizing the network nodes and the network links; in respect of each said connection, there being a number of possible ways to implement the connection in the network; the network management system including a network state store which maintains a continuously updated record of current network usage, and the network management system storing which current network connections are reconfigurable and which are not; the network management system, when allocating the connection to the network, selecting one of the number of possible ways to implement the connection by at least examining the network state store; the network management system, when deciding whether to accept or reject a request for the connection in the network, having an option to accommodate the request for the connection over the network by reconfiguring existing connections in the network by selecting, in respect of at least one existing connection to be reconfigured, a different one of the number of possible ways to implement the at least one existing connection; the reconfiguration by the network management system being constrained to a set of possible reconfigurations which is a subset of the set of all possible reconfigurations of the existing connections in the network, said subset being defined by those reconfigurations that can be carried out with no interruption or impairment of service, or unimportant interruption or impairment of service.