Patent ID: 8619585

Claim:
A system comprising: a first network device, a first link and a second link to communicatively couple the first network device to a second network device, the first link having a first bandwidth and a first latency and the second link having a second bandwidth and a second latency, the second bandwidth of the second link being greater than the first bandwidth of the first link and the second latency of the second link being greater than the first latency of the first link, and the first network device configured to: determine a cost associated with the first link based on the first latency and a first factor that is a function of the first bandwidth; determine a cost associated with the second link based on the second latency and a second factor that is a function of the second bandwidth; compare the cost associated with the first link to the cost associated with the second link; based on comparing the cost associated with the first link to the cost associated with the second link, determine that the cost associated with the second link is lower than the cost associated with the first link; and transmit data to the second network device over the second link as a consequence of having determined that the cost associated with the second link is lower than the cost associated with the first link.