Patent ID: 7827306

Claim:
A method comprising: homing, using at least one computer processor, to at least two access nodes; homing a route from at least one access node to each of a plurality of egress nodes, thereby creating respective route choices between a pair of access nodes and egress nodes; performing load balancing for a plurality of the route choices, wherein performing load balancing is repeated iteratively for either a predefined number of iterations or until a predefined loading threshold is satisfied, each iteration comprising: altering an ordering of first and second route choices if a) the route through the egress node of the first route choice violates a respective loading threshold, b) the route through the egress node of the second route choice satisfies a respective loading threshold, and c) a distance from the access node to the egress node of the second route choice satisfies a predefined criteria that is based upon a first tolerance factor and a distance from the access node to the egress node of the first route choice; and outputting the respective route choices as a first output homing record.