Patent ID: 8218445

Claim:
A method of selecting connection paths, in a network having a multiplicity of nodes interconnected by a multiplicity of links, comprising establishing multiple connection paths in a centralized offline provisioning system maintained in synchronism with said network, excluding nodes based on a node exclusion list and node exclusion policies, excluding links based on a link exclusion list and link exclusion policies related to one or more of non-additive and additive constraints, identifying multiple constraints for connection paths through said network, between source nodes and destination nodes, identifying at least one connection path that satisfies each of said constraints individually for a connection path between a selected source node and a selected destination node, wherein the at least one connection path is identified based on a plurality of statistical heuristics that narrow candidate connection paths between the selected source node and the selected destination node, and if at least one connection path is found that satisfies each of said constraints individually for all of said constraints, identifying connection paths that satisfy all of said constraints for a connection path between the selected source node and the selected destination node, wherein single-constraint statistical heuristic connection path analyses are saved and used as part of subsequent multiple-constraint statistical heuristic connection path analyses, and wherein the network is an Ethernet network.