Multicommodity flow method for designing traffic distribution on a multiple-service packetized network

A method for allocating bandwidth to routes through a packetized communication network that comprises nodes interconnected by links, each said route connecting a source node to a destination node, the method comprising:

• a) for each of one or more classes s of service, to be referred to as QoS classes, finding an initial allocation of at least some demanded bandwidth among permissible routes that optimizes a figure of merit W of network performance, the optimized value to be denoted W*;
• b) for each of said QoS classes, finding a further allocation of at least some of said demanded bandwidth among permissible routes, wherein:
• (i) the further allocation is made so as to satisfy a criterion for limiting resource usage by the network while maintaining the figure of merit W at or near its optimized value W*, and (ii) the further allocation leads to a set of flow parameters Xsr, each flow parameter representing an amount of bandwidth in QoS class s allocated to a respective route r;
• c) identifying unallocated bandwidth capacity, if any, on each link of the network, said unallocated link capacities to be referred to, collectively, as a residual network;
• and
• d) for at least one further class of service, to be referred to as a BE class, determining a set of routes, and an allocation of at least some of said demanded bandwidth among said routes, that optimize a further figure of merit WBE of network performance.