Patent ID: 8745211

Claim:
A method for operating at least one virtual network on a substrate network, or within a framework of a self-organizing model for optimizing resource consumption of the substrate network, where the virtual networks comprise a plurality of virtual nodes each being assigned to respective substrate nodes of the substrate network and two adjacent virtual nodes of the same virtual network are connected by a virtual link which is corresponding to one or more respective substrate node links, comprising the following steps: identifying a traffic pattern within at least two substrate nodes with regard to the resources individually consumed by the virtual networks; reallocating of the resources depending on an evaluation of the identified traffic patterns for optimizing resource consumption within the substrate nodes, wherein the identifying step and the evaluation and decision to execute the reallocation of resources is performed locally at each individual substrate node, after having identified an overloaded substrate link—the virtual link or links which is or are consuming the resources will be identified, and the identification of a forward traffic pattern comprises the comparison of the incoming traffic against the outgoing traffic of the analyzed virtual link, or vice versa.