Patent ID: 7974205

Claim:
A method for operating a communication system, the method comprising: receiving an arrival rate of a plurality of real-time packets; receiving a real-time packet including a first plurality of identifiers, for transmission on a first link or a second link, wherein the first link has a first bandwidth; processing the real-time packet to select a first selected link from the first link and the second link by: performing a hash function on the first plurality of identifiers resulting in a first hash value, wherein the hash function has a total number of possible hash values; determining a fractional value representing a fraction of incoming real-time packets to be sent to the second link, wherein determining the fractional value representing the fraction of incoming real-time packets to be sent to the second link uses a formula of: η 1 = { 0 , if ⁢ ⁢ λ 1 ≤ U ⁢ ⁢ μ 1 1 - U ⁢ ⁢ μ 1 λ 1 , otherwise wherein η 1 is the fractional value representing the fraction of incoming real-time packets to be sent to the second link, U is a maximum utilization of the first link, μ 1 is the first bandwidth, and λ 1 is the arrival rate of the plurality of real-time packets; selecting the first link when the first hash value is greater than a product of the fractional value representing the fraction of incoming real-time packets to be sent to the second link and the total number of possible hash values; and selecting the second link when the first hash value is less than the product of the fractional value representing the fraction of incoming real-time packets to be sent to the second link and the total number of possible hash values; and transmitting the real-time packet on the first selected link.