Patent ID: 7403485

Claim:
A method for constructing a private network-to-network interface (PNNI) network, the PNNI network configured in PNNI network peer group subunits each comprising a plurality of nodes, comprising the steps of: a. assembling a first level of network nodes in PNNI network peer groups by interconnecting nodes within each peer group, and interconnecting at least some of the nodes of one peer group with nodes of another peer group, so that a node in a peer group in the first level may be connected to a node in another peer group of the first level through n intermediate nodes, b. adding a second level of network nodes wherein the second level of network nodes are interconnected together and wherein the nodes of the second level provide interconnections between the peer groups in the first level, so that at least some of the nodes in a peer group in the first level may be connected to a node in another peer group of the first level through n−x intermediate nodes, where x is at least 1, wherein the step of adding the second level of network nodes is performed using the calculation: where, α represents the time complexity of computing a minimum cost path in a flat network, γ is a constant characterizing the number of border nodes in the network, κ characterizes the number of lower level peer groups in each higher level peer group that is visited by a network connection, τ is a predetermined positive tolerance, and ω, ξ, are temporary variables.