Patent ID: 7907530

Claim:
A system comprising: a first network device; at least first and second links having first and second bandwidths, respectively, and first and second latencies, respectively, and connecting the first network device to at least a second network device; and wherein the first network device is configured to determine a cost of the first link from the first latency and a first factor corresponding to the first bandwidth and a cost of the second link from the second latency and a second factor corresponding to the second bandwidth, wherein the first factor causes the cost of the first link to favor the first bandwidth over the first latency of the first link, wherein the second factor causes the cost of the second link to favor the second latency over the second bandwidth of the second link, and wherein the first network device is configured to provide the cost of the first link and the cost of the second link to a dynamic routing protocol configured to identify a lowest cost path between the first network device and a third network device using the cost of the first link and the cost of the second link, and wherein the first network device is configured to transmit data to the third network device using the lowest cost path.