Patent ID: 6920134

Claim:
A method of controlling the transport of a physical object having mass and from a sending station to a receiving station, said method comprising the steps of: providing a physical transportation network connecting the sending station and the receiving station, said physical transportation network comprising a plurality of physical routers connected by a plurality of physical transportation links which physically transport the physical object from one physical router to another, wherein each physical router has a plurality of incoming and outgoing physical transportation links connected thereto; associating a logical communication network with the physical transportation network, said logical communication network comprising a plurality of logical routers connected by a plurality of communication links which transport data packets from one logical router to another, wherein each logical router has a plurality of incoming and outgoing ports connected to a plurality of communication links, wherein the logical communication network and the physical transportation network have the same configuration, providing a one-to-one correspondence between the physical routers and the logical routers and between the physical transportation links and the communication links; routing a data packet through the logical network from the sending station to the receiving station according to rules for handling and moving data packets in a telecommunication protocol; determining the path taken by the data packet; and transporting the physical object through the physical network from the sending station to the receiving station over a physical path corresponding to the path taken by the data packet through the logical network.