System and method for routing internet traffic over internet links

A method of routing internet traffic over internet links using an internet router having (i) input ports to receive the internet traffic from internet service providers coupled to respective ones of the input ports, and (ii) output ports coupled to respective ones of the internet links each of which is associated with a respective backbone provider, the router configured to couple selected input ports to selected output ports responsive to router instructions, comprising:

• generating a first router instruction that identifies an output port connected to a fixed capacity bandwidth backbone provider that can receive traffic up to a first traffic level;
• generating a second router instruction that indicates that traffic in excess of the first traffic level is to be output to a usage-based bandwidth backbone provider that offers bandwidth capacity on an as-needed basis;
• generating a ranked list of bandwidth sellers among the service providers and the backbone providers from best to worst at least based on financial cost;
• determining if a traffic level is near a total fixed capacity for each input port;
• and
• if the traffic level is near the total fixed capacity, purchasing additional bandwidth capacity from a best one of the backbone providers in the ranked list.

A non-transitory processor readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to, in association with an internet router configured to route internet traffic over internet links, the internet router having (i) input ports to receive the internet traffic from internet service providers coupled to respective ones of the input ports, and (ii) output ports coupled to respective ones of the internet links each of which is associated with a respective backbone provider, the router configured to couple selected input ports to selected output ports responsive to router instructions:

• generate a first router instruction that identifies an output port connected to a fixed capacity bandwidth backbone provider that can receive traffic up to a first traffic level;
• generate a second router instruction that indicates that traffic in excess of the first traffic level is to be output to a usage-based bandwidth backbone provider that offers bandwidth capacity on an as-needed basis;
• generate a ranked list of bandwidth sellers among the service providers and the backbone providers from best to worst at least based on financial cost;
• determine if a traffic level is near a total fixed capacity for each input port;
• and
• if the traffic level is near the total fixed capacity, purchasing additional bandwidth capacity from a best one of the backbone providers in the ranked list.