Patent ID: 7240124

Claim:
A digital data network for transferring data, comprising: a plurality of routers connected on the network; at least one probe node connected to at least one of the plurality of routers; a plurality of optimized routers connected on the network; and a single route optimizer connected to the plurality of routers and the plurality of optimized routers, the single route optimizer receiving information related to network congestion from the plurality of optimized routers and the at least one probe node, and, using traffic smoothing characteristics of high bandwidth channels and the information related to network congestion, (i) defining a route on the network for forwarding the data, and (ii) transferring information related to the defined route to the plurality of routers and the plurality of optimized routers, wherein: the single route optimizer has global control over the network such that the single route optimizer completely defines the route independent of any computations of routes by the plurality of routers and the plurality of optimized routers, such that the defined route transferred by the single route optimizer to the plurality of routers and the plurality of optimized routers is an explicit route, therefore eliminating the need for hardware traffic management within the plurality of routers and the plurality of optimized routers to compute the explicit route, and the information related to network congestion from the plurality of optimized routers comprises queue length of queues in the plurality of optimized routers.