Patent ID: 8031613

Claim:
A system for routing internet traffic over a plurality of backbone providers, the system comprising: an internet router having (i) a plurality of input ports to receive a plurality of incoming data packets from one or more network users and (ii) a plurality of output ports, wherein each output port is coupled to an internet backbone provider, the internet router including: traffic measuring circuitry to (i) determine (a) incoming traffic levels on the input ports and (b) types of data of the incoming data packets and, in response thereto, (ii) generate traffic level information; congestion monitoring circuitry, coupled to the output ports, to monitor traffic conditions on the plurality of backbone providers and to responsively generate traffic condition information corresponding thereto; switch controller, coupled to the traffic measuring circuitry, to generate control signals for the switching circuitry using the traffic level information and routing instructions; and switching circuitry, coupled to the switch controller, to connect selected input ports to the selected output ports in response to the control signals from the switch controller; and a route optimizer, coupled to the internet router, to generate routing instructions for incoming data packets using: (1) available bandwidth capacity information corresponding to each backbone provider, (2) financial costs of routing data packets on the backbone providers, (3) the traffic condition information, and (4) the types of data of the incoming data packets.