Patent ID: 8867365
Filing Date: 2014-10-21
Classification: H04Q

Abstract:
1. A method comprising: homing, using at least one computer processor, to at least two access nodes; homing a route from at least one of the at least two access nodes to each of a plurality of egress nodes, thereby creating respective route choices between the at least one access node and each of the plurality of egress nodes; ordering the route choices in a least distance order; performing load balancing for a plurality of the ordered route choices in the event a predefined loading threshold has not been satisfied, wherein the predefined loading threshold is based at least in part on one or more customers' latency requirements; and outputting first homing route choices as a first output homing record, wherein performing load balancing comprises altering an ordering of a first route choice and a second route choice of the ordered route choices based on (i) a distance from the at least one access node to an egress node of the second route choice and (ii) a distance from the at least one access node to an egress node of the first route choice, the load balancing is repeated iteratively for either a predefined number of iterations or until the predefined loading threshold is satisfied, and altering the ordering of the first route choice and the second route choice of the ordered route choices is further based on a determination that a) a first route through the egress node of the first route choice violates the predefined loading threshold, b) a second route through the egress node of the second route choice satisfies the predefined loading threshold, and c) the distance from the at least one access node to the egress node of the second route choice satisfies a predefined criteria that is based upon a first tolerance factor and the distance from the at least one access node to the egress node of the first route choice.