Patent ID: 7499465

Claim:
A method for assigning light-trails in an optical network, the optical network operable to carry traffic flows in a plurality of light-trails between a plurality of nodes, the method comprising the steps of: identifying unassigned traffic flows in the optical network that require assignment to a light-trail, each traffic flow being communicated from an associated source node to an associated destination node; identifying which unassigned traffic flow includes the largest amount of traffic; establishing a new light-trail beginning at the source node of the identified traffic flow and ending at the destination node of the identified traffic flow and assigning the identified traffic flow to the established light-trail; determining whether there are any unassigned traffic flows having associated source and destination nodes included in the established light-trail; if such unassigned traffic flows are determined to exist within the light-trail, assigning the unassigned traffic flows to the light-trail in order of the amount of traffic each traffic flow includes until a capacity of the light-trail is reached; and repeating the steps of the method until no traffic flows in the optical network require assignment to a light-trail.