A method of scheduling communications in a network(100, 400), the method comprising: identifying a bin of a global timeline in which to schedule an unscheduled virtual link, wherein a bin is a segment of the global timeline; identifying a pre-scheduled virtual link in the bin; determining if the pre-scheduled virtual link and the unscheduled virtual link share a common dispatch port at one or more nodes in the network; if the unscheduled virtual link and the pre-scheduled virtual link do not share a common dispatch port, scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin to overlap with the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; and if the unscheduled virtual link and the pre-scheduled virtual link share a common dispatch port: determining a start time delay for the unscheduled virtual link based on the common dispatch port; and scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin based on the start time delay to overlap at least a portion of the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; the method further characterized by: scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link further comprises scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link based on a maximum interference parameter, wherein the maximum interference parameter indicates the maximum number of scheduled virtual links that can interfere with each other in total end-to-end along a routing path for the given virtual link at any common dispatch port, wherein the maximum interference parameter being an integer greater than or equal to zero. identifying a bin of a global timeline in which to schedule an unscheduled virtual link, wherein a bin is a segment of the global timeline; identifying a pre-scheduled virtual link in the bin; determining if the pre-scheduled virtual link and the unscheduled virtual link share a common dispatch port at one or more nodes in the network; if the unscheduled virtual link and the pre-scheduled virtual link do not share a common dispatch port, scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin to overlap with the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; and if the unscheduled virtual link and the pre-scheduled virtual link share a common dispatch port: determining a start time delay for the unscheduled virtual link based on the common dispatch port; and scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin based on the start time delay to overlap at least a portion of the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; the method further characterized by: scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link further comprises scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link based on a maximum interference parameter, wherein the maximum interference parameter indicates the maximum number of scheduled virtual links that can interfere with each other in total end-to-end along a routing path for the given virtual link at any common dispatch port, wherein the maximum interference parameter being an integer greater than or equal to zero. determining a start time delay for the unscheduled virtual link based on the common dispatch port; and scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link in the bin based on the start time delay to overlap at least a portion of the scheduled transmission of the pre-scheduled virtual link; the method further characterized by: scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link further comprises scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link based on a maximum interference parameter, wherein the maximum interference parameter indicates the maximum number of scheduled virtual links that can interfere with each other in total end-to-end along a routing path for the given virtual link at any common dispatch port, wherein the maximum interference parameter being an integer greater than or equal to zero. scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link further comprises scheduling transmission of the unscheduled virtual link based on a maximum interference parameter, wherein the maximum interference parameter indicates the maximum number of scheduled virtual links that can interfere with each other in total end-to-end along a routing path for the given virtual link at any common dispatch port, wherein the maximum interference parameter being an integer greater than or equal to zero.