Patent ID: 8165969
Filing Date: 2012-04-24
Classification: G06Q,H04L

Abstract:
1. A method for minimizing costs associated with services provided by a plurality of service providers (SPs) over combined links, wherein each SP charges for utilization of its service based on a tiered pricing structure comprising one or more tiers and wherein each tier correlates to an amount of data transferred by the SP and a cost, the method comprising: forming one or more virtual combined links that each encompass two or more combined links coupled to one of the plurality of SPs, each virtual combined link to appear as a single link; merging, by a processor of a router, link data for the two or more combined links of each virtual combined link to form link data for the virtual combined link; applying a route optimization technique to one or more virtual combined links based on the combined link data, in addition to link data for one or more single links coupled to one of the plurality of SPs, wherein the route optimization technique comprises applying a further route optimization technique to the two or more combined links encompassed by each virtual combined link to distribute data traffic of the virtual combined links among the combined links in a manner that minimizes a metric value other than monetary cost.