Dynamic advance reservation with delayed allocation

1. A method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination, comprising the steps of:

providing:

a communication system having a number of channels and a number of paths, each of said channels having a plurality of designated time slots, and

a bandwidth defined as said number of channels multiplied by said number of paths, and

a bandwidth capacity defined as said bandwidth multiplied by said number of designated time slots;

receiving two or more data transmission requests, each of said two or more data transmission requests designating a transmission of data from a source to a destination, each of said two or more data transmission requests including a requested start time TS of transmission and a requested number of time slots for said transmission of said data;

provisioning said transmission of said data corresponding to each of said two or more data transmission requests via said communication bandwidth without designating a channel of said number of channels and without designating a path of said number of paths;

receiving data corresponding to at least one of said two or more data transmission requests;

waiting until a current time within a time interval t of an earliest requested start time TS of said two or more data transmission requests;

allocating at said current time each of said two or more data transmission requests to a channel of said number of channels and to a path of said number of paths in a way which optimizes a use of said bandwidth capacity;

transmitting said data corresponding to said at least one of said two or more data transmission requests that has been allocated on said allocated channel and said allocated path; and

repeating said steps of waiting, allocating, and transmitting until each of said two or more data transmission requests that have been provisioned for a transmission of data is satisfied.

2. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step of provisioning said transmission comprises provisioning said transmission of said data during a request provisioning phase.

3. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step of allocating comprises allocating at least one of said two or more data transmission requests during a request allocation phase.

4. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step of providing a communication bandwidth is performed using an optical communication network.

5. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 4 , wherein said step of providing an optical communication network is performed using an optical communication network having wavelength division multiplexed transmission capability.

6. A system for provisioning data transmission from a source to a destination, comprising:

a communication system having a number of channels and a number of paths, each of said channels having a plurality of designated time slots, in which a communication bandwidth is defined as the product of said number of channels times said number of paths and a bandwidth capacity is defined as the product of said bandwidth times said number of designated time slots; and

a processor having instructions provided on a machine readable medium, said processor configured to perform the following steps when said instructions are operative:

determining said communication bandwidth and said bandwidth capacity;

receiving two or more data transmission requests, each of said two or more data transmission requests designating a transmission of data from a source to a destination, each of said two or more data transmission requests including a requested start time TS of transmission and a requested number of time slots for said transmission of said data;

provisioning said transmission of said data corresponding to each of said two or more data transmission requests via said communication bandwidth without designating a channel of said number of channels and without designating a path of said number of paths;

receiving data corresponding to at least one of said two or more data transmission requests;

waiting until a current time within a time interval t of an earliest requested start time TS of said two or more data transmission requests;

allocating at said current time each of said two or more data transmission requests to a channel of said number of channels and to a path of said number of paths in a way which optimizes a use of said bandwidth capacity;

transmitting said data corresponding to said at least one of said two or more data transmission requests that has been allocated on said allocated channel and said allocated path; and

repeating said steps of waiting, allocating, and transmitting until each of said two or more data transmission requests that have been provisioned for a transmission of data is satisfied.

7. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step transmitting said data is performed between a specified source and a specified destination.

8. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step transmitting said data is performed between a specified source and any one destination out of a set of candidate destinations.

9. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step transmitting said data is performed between a specified source and a plurality of specified destinations.

10. The method of scheduling data transmissions from a source to a destination of claim 1 , wherein said step transmitting said data is performed between a specified source and a plurality of candidate destinations.