APPORTIONING BANDWIDTH CAPACITY IN COMMUNICATION SWITCHING SYSTEMS

摘要

An approach for allocating system capacity of a communication switching syst em for exchange of traffic is disclosed. The system includes multiple terminals tha t request allocations of system capacity. The capacity is partitioned into a provision ed portion and an unprovisioned portion, in which a portion of the terminals constitutes a poo l having a plurality of sub-pools. According to one embodiment, a control computer communicates with the plurality of terminals and allocates the provisioned portion of the capacity to the plurality of sub-pools of the terminals. The provisioned portion of the capacity is arranged into sub- partitions, wherein one of the sub-partitions is not associated with the sub - pools of terminals. Remaining sub-partitions are associated with the sub-pools of terminals. The control computer selectively allocates available capacity from the sub-partitions to one of the sub-pool terminals to permit overflow of traffic from the one sub-pool terminal, and selectively allocates the unprovisioned portion of the capacity to the pool to permit overflow of traffic from a terminal within the pool and to a terminal that is not a part of the pool of terminals.