Patent ID: 8300798

Claim:
A communications control system comprising: (a) a data structure representing a plurality of characteristic classes for each of a plurality of communications sources; (b) a data structure representing a plurality of characteristic classes for each of a plurality of communications destinations; and (c) a processor, configured to determine an optimal set of routings representing communications linkages between respective communications sources and communications destinations for a plurality of communications selected from a group of sets of alternate possible routings representing communications linkages between respective communications sources and communications destinations, based on an economic optimization of the set of linkages of the respective communications sources and communications destinations data structures subject to at least one discrimination factor which biases the optimal set of routings away from the maximum aggregate economic value, wherein each respective communications destination has an associated cost, and a set of utility attributes, said data structure representing the plurality of communications sources comprising a set of likely requirements, wherein the processor is further configured to optimally assign an available communications destination to a respective communications source in a cost-efficient manner such that the likely requirements are satisfied by the utility attributes of the assigned available communications destination, and is configured to treat at least one discrimination factor as a cost associated with a respective assignment in an optimization.