Reservations scheduler for connections in a communications network

摘要

A process for allocating resources in a communications network (11) so that each network link used by a connection has required bitrate capacity available. Reservations for connections are scheduled in advance in an attempt to ensure that traffic on a particular route of links between source and destination nodes of a connection will not exceed a maximum bitrate capacity of each link in that route. A list of connection requests and data describing physical resources of the communications network is stored in a database (21). Time ranges, durations and requested bitrate capacities of the connection requests are stored in the database (step 73). A scheduling algorithm is applied to the database which creates a schedule of connection reservations by searching for a suitable route of links with the required bitrate capacities for each requested connection so that the connection will occur within its specified time range (steps 110 to 115). This schedule is then used by a network controller (14) to implement the connections.