Patent attributes
A method to provide actual network connection routing cost for use in connection grooming is disclosed for one embodiment. A setup message is transmitted from a source network node, through one or more intermediate nodes, to a destination node. A connect message, in acknowledgement of the setup message, is transmitted from the destination node, through the one or more intermediate nodes, to the source node to establish a network connection. The connect message includes an actual routing cost field. For one embodiment, an actual routing cost field is carried in a generic application transport (GAT) information element (IE) of a PNNI CONNECT message. The actual routing cost field is updated at every node as each link is traversed from the destination node to the source node. The accumulated routing cost in the GAT IE represents the actual routing cost of the SPVC, which the source node uses for connection grooming.
