Patent Document ID: 9143417
Application ID: 14021619
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A computer-implemented method, executable by at least one processor, for calculating incremental network costs between logical city pairs in a network, wherein each city pair is in communication across the network via one or more physical links, the method comprising: providing the network comprising a plurality of nodes, wherein the plurality of nodes comprises at least one of a router or a switch; by the at least one processor: determining, for each physical link in the network, a steady state capacity allocation associated with each city pair in the network, the steady state capacity allocation indicative of a relative proportion of a total steady state traffic flow of the network that the link has for the city pair, the total steady state traffic flow unequally distributed between the one or more physical links; determining, for each physical link in the network, a restoration capacity allocation associated with each city pair in the network, the restoration capacity allocation indicative of a relative proportion of a total restoration traffic flow of the network that the link has for the pair; and calculating an incremental cost per unit of traffic for a given city pair based on: i) the steady state capacity allocation and a restoration capacity allocation associated with a given city pair, as compared to, ii) the aggregate steady state capacity allocations and restoration capacity allocations associated with each city pair in the network; wherein the step of calculating the incremental cost per unit of traffic for the given city pair is further based on a traffic demand matrix representative of sampled traffic measurements taken across each physical link of the network during a specified time range, and wherein the sampled traffic measurements are collected via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) messages from at least some of the plurality of nodes.