Patent ID: 7835286

Claim:
A method of selecting an access solution in a Grid network, the method comprising: receiving an application request, the application request having an associated application cost; identifying any eligible Grid endpoints for which the associated application cost is not more than an amount of available resources at each eligible Grid endpoint; computing, for each eligible Grid endpoint, a lowest cost path to access the eligible Grid endpoint; selecting, as the access solution, a most eligible Grid endpoint having a lowest cost path valued not more than the lowest cost path of all other eligible Grid endpoints; and when there are no eligible Grid endpoints, selecting a back-up access solution in the Grid network by: ordering a first plurality of couples according to one or more metrics, wherein each couple includes a Grid endpoint and a path to access the Grid endpoint, determining a first strategy, the first strategy comprising at least one couple of the first plurality of couples for which a total amount of available resources is sufficient for execution of the application request, and calculating a share of resource load for each couple in the first strategy, the share of resource load specifying an amount of resources to be used at each Grid endpoint in executing the application request.