Patent ID: 7027396

Claim:
A method for provisioning a service node of a packet network that connects virtual private network (VPN) sites, said packet network comprised of a plurality of service nodes, each service node comprising at least one Provider Edge (PE) router and at least one Flow Record Processor (FRP), the method comprising the steps of: downloading a set of configuration files from a Matrix Generator (MG) server to the at least one FRP, said set of configuration files specifying measurement intervals for traffic matrixes which are to be generated, said traffic matrixes describing distributions of packet flows; uploading Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) and Route Distinguisher (RD) Tables from the at least one PE router to the at least one FRP; exporting flow records from the at least one PE router to the at least one FRP; receiving and processing said flow records at the at least one FRP; generating partial traffic matrixes at said at least one FRP; uploading partial traffic matrixes from the at least one FRP to the MG; computing a total traffic matrix for a measurement interval by summing the partial traffic matrixes for said measurement interval; determining whether the service node has adequate capacity based on the traffic patterns established from the generated traffic matrixes; and if the capacity is not adequate, rerouting future flows to establish adequate capacity.