Patent ID: 7072304

Claim:
A method of selecting a path from a first set of paths each path having a similar path metric value and a path bandwidth metric value, each path extending through a network from a common source node to a common end node via intermediate nodes, the common source node, the common end node and the intermediate nodes being interconnected by a plurality of links, the method comprising: a) determining a second set of paths formed from paths in the first set having a desirable path bandwidth metric value; b) determining a first common node between two chosen paths from the second set, the first common node being an intermediate node for each of the two chosen paths, a segment of each of the two chosen paths between the common end node and the first common node defining a unique segment for each of the two paths each unique segment having a segment bandwidth metric value; c) determining a path from the two chosen paths based on a desirable segment bandwidth metric value from the segment bandwidth metric value for each of the two unique segments; and d) repeating steps b) and c) retaining the determined path as one of the two chosen paths until all paths in the second set of paths have been chosen.