Patent ID: 7388841

Claim:
A method for selecting multiple paths between a server and a client in an overlay network having a plurality of nodes connected by links, the plurality of nodes including the server and the client, each path including a set of selected links, comprising the steps of: measuring, in each node of the overlay network, quality of service metrics of each link directly connecting the node to an immediate neighboring node in the overlay network; transmitting the quality of service metrics to the server; maintaining, in the server, the quality of service metrics, a link correlation matrix based on the quality of service metrics, and a path correlation matrix based on the link correlation matrix, and in which the link correlation matrix is Cr ⁡ ( L ij , L mn ) = 1 / 2 + E ⁡ [ ( L ij - L _ ij ) ⁢ ( L mn - L _ mn ) ] 2 ⁢ E ⁡ ( L ij 2 ) - ( L _ ij ) 2 ⁢ E ⁡ ( L mn 2 ) - ( E ⁡ ( L _ mn ) ) 2 , where ij and mn are a pair of links connecting two nodes, E is an expected value, L ij and L mn are the quality of service metrics for link ij and link mn, an average L ij =E(L ij ), and an average L mn =E(L mn ); and selecting, in the server, the multiple paths based only on the quality of service metrics, the link correlation matrix, and the path correlation matrix.