Patent Document ID: 8068412
Application ID: 12008171
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for use in a network in which multiple parallel links, which each have multiple channels, interconnect first and second network nodes, said method comprising: reserving channels of particular ones of said parallel links for requested connections between said first and second nodes, wherein ones of said channels in ones of said parallel links were previously reserved for other connections between said nodes using a first link selection algorithm that selects for each connection a particular link from among the multiple parallel links; wherein said reserving comprises subsequently responding to requests for connections between said first and second nodes by utilizing a second link selection algorithm different from said first link selection algorithm to select a particular link for each requested connection from among the multiple parallel links; wherein said first algorithm is of a type that causes less bandwidth fragmentation than said second algorithm, said second algorithm is of a type that causes less glare than said first algorithm, and said second algorithm is such as to select as said particular link a link that said first algorithm had previously selected for said other connections when channels for a requested connection are available on said link that said first algorithm had previously selected; wherein said nodes operate in a communication network in which initially provisioned connections are made between pairs of endpoints, wherein restoration connections are made between at least particular pairs of said endpoints upon failure of the initially provisioned connections between those endpoints; wherein said first algorithm is used to initially provision said other connections; wherein said requested connections are ones of said restoration connections; and wherein one of two versions of said second algorithm is used when said first node receives a connection request and wherein the other of said two versions of said second algorithm is used when said second node receives a connection request.