Patent ID: 8107379

Claim:
A method for dynamically assigning priorities to traffic engineering (TE) label switched paths (LSPs) from a head-end node of a computer network, the method comprising: allocating a range of priority values for use with TE-LSPs that are members of a group of possible TE-LSP configurations, the range of priority values spanning from a lowest priority value to a highest priority value, wherein each priority value in the range of priority values represents a relative importance of a TE-LSP with respect to other TE-LSPs in the computer network; determining, by a node of the computer network, if a path across the computer network with adequate resources is available for a TE-LSP that is a member of the group using the lowest priority value of the range of priority values; if a path across the computer network with adequate resources is available for the TE-LSP that is a member of the group at the lowest priority value of the range, use the lowest priority; if a path across the computer network with adequate resources is not available for the TE-LSP that is a member of the group at the lowest priority value of the range, dynamically increasing a priority value of the TE-LSP that is a member of the group, within the corresponding range of priority values allocated for use with TE-LSPs that are members of the group, until adequate resources are available for the TE-LSP; and establishing the TE-LSP that is a member of the group at the priority value resulting in adequate resources.