US Patent 7764665 Real-time network scheduled packet routing system

A system for guaranteeing bandwidth for transmitting data in a network. A path generation engine determines a data paths across a network according to preselected criteria. A scheduling engine determines schedule appointments for data packets to traverse each link in the network including compensation for transmission delays and switch latencies. Scheduling data is communicated to schedule-aware switches and endpoints so that appointment times are reserved for transmission of the scheduled data packets. Real-time transmission of data can be guaranteed in both directions along the transmission path.