Patent ID: 7930423

Claim:
A method for distributing data packets within a network comprising: iteratively establishing a present average load (P ave ) for each data port of a plurality of data ports of a network node, wherein the present average load (P ave ) comprises a moving average based on a previous present average load (P ave ) and a present instantaneous load (P inst ); computing a normalized average available bandwidth for each said data port based on said present average load (P ave ) of each said data port; and distributing data packets to said plurality of data ports based on said normalized average available bandwidth of each said data port; iteratively measuring the present instantaneous load (P inst ) for each said data port, wherein said measuring is performed after a predetermined period of time; iteratively computing a new average load (NL ave ) for each said data port, wherein said new average load (NL ave ) is given by the equation: (NL ave =(α*P ave )+[(1−α)*P inst ]), wherein α is an adjustable tuning constant ranging in value from 0.0 to 1.0 and wherein NL ave =(0.5*P ave )+[(0.5)*P inst ] when α is 0.5.