Patent ID: 7894463

Claim:
A method for facilitating improved resource allocation and utilization in a network, the method comprising: determining a set of metric values for each node in a set of nodes in the network, wherein each metric value corresponds to a different characteristic for the node; for each characteristic for each node: using the metric values corresponding to the characteristic for other nodes in the set of nodes to assign the other nodes to access groups based on a grouping policy; and constructing a logical hierarchy of the access groups for the characteristic for the node; receiving traffic that is to be forwarded from a first node in the set of nodes to a next-hop node; determining a set of target metric values for a set of characteristics for the next-hop node based on the traffic; for each characteristic in the set of characteristics for the next-hop node, intersecting access groups in the logical hierarchies for the first node corresponding to the characteristic for the next-hop node, wherein intersecting the access groups involves creating a combined access group that includes the next-hop node; identifying the next-hop node within the combined access group; and forwarding the traffic.