Method and system for establishing link bit rate for inverse multiplexed data streams

A method for determining an optimal rate for transmitting a cell stream at a desired transmission rate from a first location to a second location over a plurality of low capacity links, the method comprising:

• determining characteristics and a maximum rate for each of the links to create a list of available links and associated transmission rates;
• selecting the link with the lowest rate and setting all available links to transmit at the same rate to determine a total available rate;
• comparing the total rate based on the lowest rate and the number of available links to the desired rate;
• finding the next lowest rate from the available rates and setting all other links to transmit at the next lowest rate to determine another total available rate;
• repeating the finding step until all available rates have been considered to create a list of maximum rates and corresponding total available rates;
• and
• choosing a rate from the maximum rates that corresponds to one of the available links, and thus, one total available rate from the total available rates that is at least equal to or greater than the desired rate to produce the optimal rate.