Patent ID: 8238240

Claim:
A system for routing internet traffic over a plurality of internet links, the system comprising: a plurality of input ports to receive incoming data packets; a plurality of output ports connected to a plurality of internet links, wherein each output port is connected to an associated internet link and wherein each of the associated Internet links is coupled to at least one additional internet link; switching circuitry, coupled to the plurality of input ports and the plurality of output ports, to couple input ports to selected output ports in response to control signals; and controller circuitry to generate the control signals using routing instructions; and an internet route optimizer, coupled to the controller circuitry, to generate routing instructions for incoming data packets using a ranked list of the internet links which are connected to the plurality of output ports and serve the predetermined destination, wherein the internet route optimizer generates the ranked list of the internet links using: (1) financial costs of routing data packets over the internet links, wherein the financial costs of routing data packets over the internet links corresponds to only financial costs associated with routing data packets over the internet links which are connected to the plurality of output ports, (2) a delay associated with routing packets over the internet links, wherein the delay associated with routing packets over the internet links is representative of an amount of time between when a packet is sent over the internet link and when the packet arrives at the predetermined destination, and (3) a type of data of the incoming data packets, wherein the type of data is indicative of a content of the data of the incoming data packet.