disclosed are network management procedures that apply measurements of traffic load to achieve greater efficiency in the operation of the network . in a method for deciding whether to route an incoming call on a selected potential service route , the potential service route is treated preferentially if each of its links has available capacity that is more than sufficient by a specified margin . in a method for computing billing revenues , the non - compliance of the network service provider with contracted requirements for carried load causes a revenue penalty to be exacted for lost bandwidth .