Patent ID: 8897135

Claim:
A method comprising: creating, in a computing network, a loop-free routing topology comprising a plurality of routing arcs for reaching a destination device, each routing arc comprising a first network device as a first end of the routing arc, a second network device as a second end of the routing arc, and at least a third network device configured for routing any network traffic along the routing arc toward the destination device via any one of the first or second ends of the routing arc; and load balancing the network traffic along the routing arcs based on traffic metrics obtained at the first and second ends of the routing arcs, including selectively sending a backpressure command to a first one of the routing arcs supplying at least a portion of the network traffic to a congested one of the routing arcs; and a centralized network manager receiving the traffic metrics of each of the ends of the routing arcs, the load balancing including the centralized network manager sending a load balancing command to the third network device of at least one of the of the routing arcs; wherein the at least one routing arc is an infrastructure arc comprising one and only one arc cursor and a fourth network device identified as an intermediate junction node and adjacent to the corresponding third network device, the arc cursor providing exclusive control of directing the network traffic along the infrastructure arc and away from any network device having possession of the arc cursor, the load balancing further comprising the centralized network manager sending a cursor transfer command for transfer of the arc cursor from the third network device to the fourth network device.