US Patent 7747777 Optimizing network resources usage within an administrative boundary

In one embodiment, an apparatus comprises logic for optimizing network resources usage. The logic is operable to store IGP information, where the IGP information includes a set of attribute values associated with each of a set of content servers. When the logic receives a request for content from a remote peer, the logic determines one or more content servers that can provide the requested content. The logic then retrieves, from the IGP information, a plurality of attribute values associated with a non-looping path from each of the one or more content servers. For each of the one or more content servers, the retrieved attribute values include: one or more capacity values indicating capacities of one or more communication links on the non-looping path from that content server; and one or more utilization values indicating utilizations of the one or more communication links on the non-looping path from that content server. The logic then selects a content server based on the retrieved attribute values, and causes the request for the content to be sent to the selected content server.