Patent ID: 8144629

Claim:
A system, comprising: a processing system; a memory system coupled to said processing system; and a network interface coupled to said processing system and connectable to a network; wherein said memory system stores instructions configured to cause said processing system, when retrieved from said memory system and executed by said processing system to: receive a service request over said network interface requesting a connection between a source node and a destination node over said network, determine a requested class of service associated with said service request, said requested class of service indicating one of a plurality of classes of service requested for said connection, store topology information about said network in a plurality of virtual local area network pools, a portion of said topology information being based on a protocol identifying multiple paths in said network, each said virtual local area network pool configured to include said topology information relative to a set of paths configured to provision connections satisfying at least one class of service requirement, determine if a path of said multiple paths is available that is between the source node and the destination node and that satisfies said requested class of service by checking at least a subset of said plurality of virtual local area network pools, and assign said service request a connection corresponding to said determined path in one of said plurality virtual local area network pools.