Patent ID: 8711719

Claim:
A method of generating network topology parameters of a communications network domain comprising a plurality of network nodes and a plurality of interconnecting links, the method comprising: identifying those of the network nodes configured to interface with one or more other network domains as summarized nodes; identifying a plurality of available network domain paths between a pair of summarized nodes, at least one of said available network domain paths between said pair of summarized nodes comprising at least one other network node and respective interconnecting links; generating network topology parameters for said pair of summarized nodes, each network topology parameter being dependent on a respective transmission parameter of the said available network domain paths; determining whether a transmission parameter of a first of said available network domain paths would allow that path to be bundled with another one of said available network domain paths; comparing any such transmission parameter with a transmission parameter of any previously determined paths to determine whether there exits a previously determined path which has a matching transmission parameter; and forming a bundled path, in response to determining a matching transmission parameter is found, by adding a bandwidth of the first of said available network domain paths to a bandwidth of said other path.