The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 11, 2007
Filed:
May. 22, 2001
Paul Kirkby, Harlow, GB;
Michael Heffernan, Ottawa, CA;
David Ireland, Chelmsford, GB;
Peter Hamer, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Radhakrishnan Kadengal, Harlow, GB;
Paul Kirkby, Harlow, GB;
Michael Heffernan, Ottawa, CA;
David Ireland, Chelmsford, GB;
Peter Hamer, Bishops Stortford, GB;
Radhakrishnan Kadengal, Harlow, GB;
Nortel Networks Limited, St. Laurent, Quebec, CA;
Abstract
A communications network has multiple resource-allocation layers and incorporates a management structure for allocating resources to allocate resources requested by a first layer of said layers from a second of said layers. At a first layer, the management structure provides an indication to a second layer of the required resources that are to be allocated from the second layer. The second layer automatically offers the required resource together with a condition for use of those resources. This condition includes a notional price factor which is dependent on current demand. Under the control of the manager, the first layer determines if the condition for use of the offered resources is acceptable and, if so, automatically accepts the offered resources from the second layer. In a preferred embodiment, ingress to an underlying multi-wavelength transport layer of the network is controlled via a virtual port which allocates traffic to real ports one for each wavelength supported by the transport layer.