Patent ID: 7961638

Claim:
A method for routing data over a telecommunications carrier network whose topology includes a plurality of switching devices defining a plurality of physical links, and a plurality of traffic flows through at least one of the physical links in the network, each of the traffic flows being associated with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) and having specific routing from a routing scheme computed for the entire network that is based on the flows' SLAs and network parameters, the method comprising: inputting network parameters into a processor; collecting data of traffic transmitted over at least some of the traffic flows; calculating global traffic statistics for the entire network for all the flows, based on the collected data, in said processor; determining, in said processor, from the input network parameters and from the calculated traffic statistics, whether any pre-defined criteria for route recalculation are met, wherein the pre-defined criteria include a change in network parameters and a pre-determined amount of change in at least one of the calculated traffic statistics; and recalculating in said processor the routing scheme for the entire network, based on the input network parameters, the calculated statistics, and the set of SLAs, when any of the pre-defined criteria for route recalculation is met so as to optimize performance of the entire network according to a pre-defined criterion; and routing incoming data through the switching devices according to said recalculated routing scheme.