Patent ID: 8213312

Claim:
In a network that includes a plurality of ingress nodes, a plurality of egress nodes, and a plurality of links to connect ones of the ingress nodes to ones of the egress nodes, a method comprising: associating, by a device, input data rates with each of the plurality of ingress nodes and output data rates with each of the plurality of egress nodes; performing, in the device, parallel processing, the parallel processing including: performing, by a device, a first process to determine a link load associated with each of the plurality of links, performing, by the device, a second process to determine a plurality of possible paths for transmitting data traffic received at one of the plurality of ingress nodes through the network, performing, by the device, a third process to determine a bandwidth range for the plurality of links based on the data traffic received at the one of the plurality ingress nodes, and performing, by the device, a fourth process to be used to determine a maximum bandwidth associated with ones of the plurality of links; and determining, by the device and based on the first process, the second process, the third process, and the fourth process, the plurality of possible paths, including a selected path, for transmitting data traffic, received at one of the plurality of ingress nodes through the network, at an arbitrary data rate within a range, where the range is based on the input data rates and the output data rates.