Patent ID: 7333432

Claim:
A method of configuring a plurality of network elements linked together by a plurality of links to support real-time applications, the method comprising the computer-implemented steps of: determining a first role of a plurality of roles performed by one or more network elements to completely support a particular real-time application, wherein: each role is associated with a plurality of groups of policies, each group of policies includes one or more policies, each group of policies is associated with a class of network elements of a plurality of classes of network elements among the plurality of network elements, wherein device attributes of a first class of network elements contradict device attributes of a second class of network elements, and each policy includes a configuration command that causes a network element of an associated class of the plurality of classes to perform an action on a data packet to support an associated role of the plurality of roles for the particular real-time application; selecting from the plurality of network elements a first subset of one or more network elements that will perform the first role based at least in part on the plurality of links; and associating each network element in the first subset with an associated group of a first plurality of groups of policies associated with the first role.