Patent ID: 7969873

Claim:
An apparatus for optimizing data transmission over a channel group having a plurality of physical channels, comprising: an input queue for receiving an input stream of data units to be transmitted over said channel group; a suspended queue for storing data units retrieved from said input queue but not able to be sent over a particular channel; a transmission plan generator operative to: generate a plurality of transmission plans wherein each transmission plan includes a schedule for transmitting data units over each physical channel; generate said schedule by attempting to transmit data units previously placed in said suspended queue, attempting to send unsuspended data units in said input queue over a first channel in said channel group, and if said unsuspended data units cannot be sent, placing said unsuspended data units in said suspended queue for transmission over a different channel wherein said different channel has a greater bandwidth than a bandwidth associated with said first channel; select a best transmission plan from said plurality of transmission plans based on one or more optimization criteria; and transmit scheduled data units over said channel group in accordance with said selected transmission plan.