Patent Document ID: 20180026850
Application ID: 15215328
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method in a computing system, comprising: receiving, at a computing system, demand data characterizing network demand projections for a backbone network, the demand data comprising, for each demand projection, a first node in the backbone network, a second node in the backbone network, a time period, and a projected network demand associated with the first and second nodes for the time period; receiving, at the computing system, supply data characterizing network supply availabilities for the backbone network, the supply data comprising, for each supply availability, a cable in the backbone network comprised of at least one segment, a first node in the backbone network associated with the cable, a second node in the backbone network associated with the cable, a time period, and an available capacity associated with the cable for the time period; receiving, at the computing system, data characterizing network cable costs for the backbone network, the cost data comprising, for each network cable cost, a cable, an upfront cost amount, and a recurring cost amount; receiving, at the computing system, failure data characterizing network failure scenarios, the failure data comprising, for each failure scenario, at least one segment; and identifying needed capacities for the backbone network by: determining, for a set of time periods in the demand data and supply data, a needed capacity for a set of cables in the backbone network by: assigning, for at least some of the failure scenarios in the failure data, a network flow to each cable in the set cables based on the failure scenario, wherein the network flow assigned to a cable is less than or equal to the available capacity for that cable for the time period, and wherein the demand for the time period associated with each pair of first and second nodes is satisfied by the assigned flow between the first and second node; and determining, for each cable in the set of cables, a needed capacity for the cable for the time period based on the network flows assigned to the cable for each of the at least some failure scenarios; and generating, based on the needed capacity for the set of cables at the set of time periods, and the upfront cost amount and recurring cost amount associated with the cables in the set of cables, a capacity provisioning plan comprised of a provisioned capacity for the set of cables at each of the set of time periods.