Patent ID: 8081571

Claim:
An Internet Protocol (IP) routed communication network, comprising: a plurality of communication links; a plurality of network nodes operable to calculate a path for routing IP packets between the network nodes over the communication links; and a flow admission controller operable to: monitor bandwidth allocated to flows of at least one traffic type on the communication links; calculate, independently of path calculation by the network nodes and by predicting which path will be used by the network nodes, at least one path traversing at least one communication link between a source node and a destination node for a new flow; determine, for each communication link of the at least one path, whether admittance of the new flow would push usage beyond a predetermined threshold relative to network bandwidth pre-provisioned for the flows of the at least one traffic type; and indicate that the new flow would push the usage beyond the predetermined threshold if it is determined that the admittance of the new flow would push the usage beyond the predetermined threshold.