Patent ID: 7450516

Claim:
A method for use in a network that includes first and second network nodes interconnected by multiple links, each of said links having multiple channels, said method reserving channels of particular ones of said links for requested connections between said first and second nodes, ones of said channels in ones of said links having been previously reserved for other connections between said nodes using a first link selection algorithm, the method comprising responding to requests for connections between said first and second nodes by utilizing a second link selection algorithm different from said first link selection algorithm to select a particular link for each requested connection, wherein said first algorithm is a best-fit algorithm and said second algorithm is an interleave algorithm, wherein there are K of said links having indices 1, 2, . . . , K, wherein said interleave algorithm is such that said first node responds to a connection request by selecting, as said particular link, a) a link from among the links having the indices {1, 3, 5, . . . , M} that has the smallest amount of unassigned bandwidth that can still accommodate the connection request, or, if there is no such link, b) the first link having an index in the sequence {N, . . . 6, 4, 2} that has enough unassigned bandwidth to accommodate the connection request, wherein said interleave algorithm is such that said second node responds to a connection request by selecting, as said particular link, a) a link from among the links having the indices {2, 4, 6, . . . , N} that has the smallest amount of unassigned bandwidth that can still accommodate the connection request, or, if there is no such link, b) the first link having an index in the sequence {M, . . . , 5, 3, 1} that has enough unassigned bandwidth to accommodate the connection request, wherein M is the largest odd number ≦K, and wherein N is the largest even number ≦K.