Patent ID: 7318016

Claim:
A planning method for optimally deploying network equipment in a network over a period of time, said network including a span disposed between at least two sites, the method comprising: providing a demand input structure having a plurality of demands to be serviced by said network, each of the demands being associated with a corresponding time point and a demand quantity indicating units of communication capacity; sorting said plurality of demands by their time points; starting with a set of the demands having an earliest time point; transforming said network into a network model including a multi-nodal directed graph having a plurality of arcs, said transforming being based on a topology of said network; optimizing the routing of said set of demands using said multi-nodal directed graph and a cost function associated therewith; obtaining network equipment placement information and demand routing information based on said optimizing of the routing of said set of demands; updating said network model and said cost function associated therewith based on said network equipment placement information and said demand routing information; repeating said optimizing, said obtaining, and said updating for remaining time points provided in said demand input structure, using said updated network model and cost function to optimize the routing of the remaining demands associated with said time points; and outputting a network equipment deploying solution based on the updated network model and the cost function associated therewith when all time points have been processed.