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Method and system for controlling package-oriented network traffic

  • US 6,917,982 B1
  • Filed: 12/15/1999
  • Issued: 07/12/2005
  • Est. Priority Date: 12/19/1998
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method for optimizing network traffic control in a network having a plurality of transport paths between respective nodes, each transport path having a transport capacity realized by respective transport means (V1,V2,V3,C1), in which network at least a portion of transport objects are package-oriented and can be checked for divisability into sub-objects, said transport objects each to be shipped compliant with suitable pickup and delivery time windows from a respective originating node (10,11,12) to a respective destination node (14,15,16) along a routing node sequence, the method comprising the steps ofglobally collecting (110) current transport movements information (19) from at least a part (18) of the network, and globally collecting (120) for a predetermined planning period current transport requirements information (17) concerning at least said part (18) of the network, checking (125) all transport system elements for availability for reloading, checking (130) for a given transport object if it is able to be divided in at least two sub-objects, checking (140) if at least one of the sub-objects of said load can be redirected on a transport path different to that said object was scheduled before, dynamically establishing non-permanent nodes for reloading and redirecting an object to a different route, the method being characterized by the steps of evaluating (150), at least in part using pro-active organizational means, said information (17,19) gathered before by using graphs comprising possible dynamic time buffers related to transport system elements, said buffers embedding at least temporarily said pickup and delivery time windows in order to achieve globally optimized network traffic, reloading (160) of sub-objects onto either of the plurality of objects according to an optimization decision (23) based on said step of evaluating (150), and/or dividing (170) transport objects into sub-objects according to an optimization decision (25) based on said step of evaluating (150), providing specific for each of a plurality of transport requirements and transport movements a dynamic time window comprising at least two fixed minimum time windows with respective variable time buffers each defining a start time and an end time necessary for adapting the dynamically varying schedules of said transport elements to one another, basing the optimization decision (23,25) on a sequence of steps, dividing at each of the nodes, if possible, the incoming transport object in at least two sub-objects, determining the transport capacity on at least one of the node'"'"'s outgoing paths within the dynamic time buffer, propagating said total time windows, and moving objects and/or sub-objects within the dynamic time buffer.

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