Patent ID: 7675899

Claim:
A method of determining a route for a given demand in a circuit-switched data communication network, comprising the steps of: obtaining via a computing system the given demand to be routed in the circuit-switched data communication network, wherein the circuit-switched data communication network implements a packet ring (PR) model such that one or more demands are routable on one or more virtual data rings in the circuit-switched data communication network; specifying via the computing system an Ethernet-Over-SONET (EOS) communication channel in the circuit-switched data communication network suitable for accommodating the given demand; and identifying via the computing system one of the EOS communication channel and one of the one or more virtual data rings as a route for the given demand such that the circuit-switched data communication network operates in a hybrid architecture wherein one or more EOS communication channels are selectively used in conjunction with the one or more virtual data rings specified in accordance with the PR model to route demands in the circuit-switched data communication network; wherein when the given demand is a demand that is rejected during a set-up stage of the circuit-switched data communication network, the identified EOS communication channel is a newly provisioned EOS communication channel for routing the rejected demand or an existing provisioned EOS communication channel that is enlarged for routing the rejected demand.