Patent ID: 7277393

Claim:
A method of identifying at least one characteristic of a network comprising a plurality of links, the method comprising: a. selecting at least a subset of the plurality of links in the network; b. for each of at least one link in the selected at least the subset: simulating operation of at least a portion of the network under a condition of adjustment of the at least one characteristic of said at least one link; and calculating at least one result of the simulating step; c. identifying an optimal result from the at least one result calculated for the selected at least the subset of the links in the immediately preceding step b; d. adjusting, in an amount at least similar to the adjustment made during the simulation step and for purposes of subsequent simulation, the characteristic of the at least one link corresponding to the optimal result identified, responsive to the optimal result identified being better than any prior optimal result identified; and repeating steps a-d at least one additional time, responsive to the adjusting step.