Traffic route finder in communications network

Abstract

A route finder means and method for finding routes to satisfy a plurality of connection requests in a communications network comprising a plurality of nodes connected by a plurality of links. A cost is assigned to each network link. Arrays of eight shortest paths of links between each pair of nodes in the network are created. Bit strings comprising for example a 3 bit binary number for each point-to-point connection request are generated. Each 3 bit number is an index to one element of the shortest path array for each connection request's source and destination nodes. The bit strings are assembled into population members which are manipulated by genetic algorithms. The fitness of the population members is evaluated by calculating the cost of traversing the routes represented by the bit strings. The route finder means and method has an ability to split traffic over multiple routes, and to handle different traffic types, eg different bit rate traffic types. The route finder means and method is generic to a plurality of different communications network types.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.