Patent ID: 7257632

Claim:
A method for allocating bandwidth within a network domain by a network server operably coupled to a network domain edge node and to a database, the network domain including links for connecting two nodes, the method comprsing: accessing the database, the database including path-level data comprising Quality of Service (QoS) information for paths, the paths including a plurality of links for connecting two edge nodes, and link-level data comprising QoS information for the links, the path-level data being summarized from the link-level data; receiving from the network domain edge node a flow request for a requested path; satisfying the flow request using the path-level data if the network server determines the network server can satisfy the flow request using the path-level data; and satisfying the flow request using the link-level data if the network server determines the network server cannot satisfy the flow request using the path-level data, wherein the path-level data includes for each path unused bandwidth allocated to the path and a path state including a critical state and a non-critical state, the method further comprising satisfying the flow request using the unused bandwidth if the requested path is not in a critical state and if the requested path has enough unused bandwidth to satisfy the flow request, and wherein the link-level data includes for each link quotas of bandwidth available to the link, the method further comprising allocating by the network server to each link along the requested path a quota of bandwidth from the quotas of bandwidth available to the link if the requested path does not have enough unused bandwidth to satisfy the flow request.