Patent ID: 7286471

Claim:
A method for dynamically modulating the bandwidth allocation for a network trunk comprising the steps of: receiving a pre-established bandwidth allocation for a region; measuring the aggregate outbound data traffic from the region; requesting additional bandwidth beyond the allocation if the difference between the pre-established bandwidth allocation for the region and the measured aggregate of outbound data traffic from the region indicates that more bandwidth is required to carry the outbound traffic from the region than is allocated; and releasing bandwidth not required if the difference between the pre-established bandwidth allocation for the region and the measured aggregate of outbound data traffic from the region indicates that less bandwidth is required to carry the outbound traffic from the region than is allocated; wherein the step of requesting additional bandwidth further comprises the steps of: sending to an add-drop multiplexer servicing the region a message that indicates that additional bandwidth is required; sending the total amount of outbound data to the add-drop multiplexer if a message indicating that additional bandwidth is available is received from the add-drop multiplexer servicing the region; and discarding the outbound data, shaping the traffic profile of the outbound data, or throttling back the data sources feeding the outbound data to the primary router servicing the region if a message indicating that additional bandwidth is not available is received from the add-drop multiplexer servicing the region.