the following detailed description of the invention refers to the accompanying drawings . the same reference numbers in different drawings identify the same or similar elements . also , the following detailed description does not limit the invention . instead , the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof . fig1 is a block diagram of a portion of an exemplary network 100 . fig1 depicts an exemplary arrangement and is presented to facilitate description of the invention . network 100 includes a plurality of communicating network elements labeled a - f . network 100 may be any type of communications network ( e . g ., an optical network ) using a variety of communications formats such as mpls , atm , frame relay , etc . the network elements a - f may be any type of known network devices such as routers , switches , transceivers , repeaters , add - drop multiplexers , etc . network elements a - f are connected by a plurality of links referenced as e 1 - e 6 . links e 1 - e 6 maybe any transmission medium capable of carrying signals such as optical fiber , coaxial cable , twisted pair cable , wireless channels , etc . the network elements and links define paths through the network 100 . in the example shown in fig1 , the network elements and links provide paths between network element a and network element e . the paths are characterized as either working paths or protection paths . as known in the art , protection paths are provided in the event a working path becomes disrupted . links in a working path are referred to as working links and links in a protection path are referred to as protection links . in the example shown in fig1 , the path through network elements a - b - c - d - e is a working path . path a - f - e is a protection path providing protection for working path a - b - c - d - e . each working link e 1 - e 4 and protection link e 5 - e 6 is associated with one or more shared risk groups ( srg ). an srg is a group of links that will tend to fail collectively due to factors such as physical location . for example , an srg may be a number of links ( e . g ., optical fibers ) contained in the same conduit . if the conduit is disrupted , the links in this group will fail . the different srg &# 39 ; s are referenced as srg 1 - srg n herein . in assigning protection paths to working paths , one goal is to enhance usage of protection path bandwidth . multiple working paths may share a common protection path to reduce unnecessary protection path bandwidth . an exemplary embodiment of the invention determines how protection paths should be allocated to reduce designation of additional protection path bandwidth . to determine the amount of bandwidth associated with each protection path , each protection link is assigned a protection link vector having vector elements . each vector element corresponds to a specific srg and identifies the amount of bandwidth allocated by that link to protect all working connections containing at least one link from that particular srg . thus , the length of the protection link vector is equal to the number of srg &# 39 ; s in the network . for example , if link e 5 is assigned to provide 10 bandwidth units to protect working connections containing at least one link from srg 1 , 5 bandwidth units to protect working connections containing at least one link from srg 2 , and 15 bandwidth units to protect working connections containing at least one link from srg 3 , the protection link vector for protection link e 5 would be 10 , 5 , 15 . a bandwidth unit may correspond to any measure of bandwidth such as 1 gbs . the protection link vector may have zero value elements indicating that the protection link is not utilized by an srg . fig2 illustrates the addition of a new working path through network elements a - g - e and links e 7 and e 8 . upon creation of a new working path , an exemplary embodiment of the invention determines the allocation of protection bandwidth for the new working path such that creation of new protection path bandwidth is limited . typically , assigning path protection bandwidth involves determining whether an existing protection path should be used or a new protection path be created . in the example shown in fig2 , a potential new protection path through network elements a - h - e and links e 9 and e 10 is depicted . an exemplary process for allocating protection path bandwidth is depicted in fig3 . the process may be implemented by an originating network element in network 100 . in the example shown in fig2 , the process is executed by network element a which is the originating network element for working path a - g - e . network element a may include a processor that executes the process of fig3 in response to a computer program contained in a storage medium accessible by the processor . the process begins at step 200 where the working path for which protection is sought is defined . the working path may be defined by the number of bandwidth units needed from each srg . for example , a new working path may be defined as requiring 10 bandwidth units from srg 1 and 10 bandwidth units from srg 2 . similarly , if a working path is being increased in bandwidth , and the assigned protection path lacks capacity for the increase , then the assigned protection path is released and an alternate protection path is determined . once the working path is defined flow proceeds to step 202 where protection links lacking capacity to protect the defined working path are disregarded . for example , if the defined working path requires 30 bandwidth units , protection links lacking the capacity to increase by 30 bandwidth units are eliminated from consideration . at step 204 it is determined whether any protection paths remain after eliminating the links in step 202 . if no protection path exists after eliminating the links in step 202 , then flow proceeds to step 206 where new protection links are added to protect the defined working path since the existing set of protection links lack the bandwidth needed to create a protection path . if existing set of links have the needed capacity to create a protection path for the defined working path , flow proceeds to step 208 where links lacking srg disjointedness with the defined working path are disregarded . srg disjointedness refers to this link not being in the same srg group as any link in the working path . if the working path and the protection path include links in the same srg , then there is a higher likelihood that the protection path and working path will fail simultaneously . this defeats the purpose of providing protection paths , and thus srg disjointedness is desirable between a working path and protection path . flow proceeds to step 210 where it is determined if any protection paths remain after eliminating the links in step 208 . if no protection path exists after eliminating the links in step 206 , then flow proceeds to step 212 where new protection links are added to protect the defined working path since the existing protection links cannot create a protection path . if existing protection links have the needed capacity and disjointedness to create a protection path for the defined working path , flow proceeds to step 214 where a link cost is determined for each protection link of the existing protection paths and each protection link of the proposed new protection path . the link cost defines the burden , in increased bandwidth , placed on each protection link by using that protection link to protect the defined working path . fig4 is flowchart of an exemplary process for determining the link cost . the process is performed for each protection link in existing protection paths and the new protection path . the process begins at step 300 where the current vector for the protection link is obtained . fig5 illustrates existing protection path a - f - e including protection links e 5 and e 6 . protection link e 5 is allocated 10 bandwidth units from srg 1 , 10 bandwidth units from srg 2 and 10 bandwidth units from srg 3 . the link vector for protection link e 5 is ( 10 , 10 , 10 ). protection link e 6 is allocated 10 bandwidth units from srg 1 and 5 bandwidth units from srg 2 and 20 bandwidth units from srg 3 . the link vector for protection link e 6 is ( 10 , 5 , 20 ). optional new protection path a - h - e through links e 9 and e 10 has no bandwidth units allocated to it yet . thus , the link vector for protection links e 9 and e 10 is ( 0 , 0 , 0 ). once the current link vectors are obtained , flow proceeds to step 302 where the maximum link vector element is determined for each protection link . for example , as shown in fig5 , the maximum link vector element for protection link e 5 is 10 . the maximum link vector element for protection link e 6 is 20 . the maximum link vector element for protection links e 9 and e 10 is 0 . the maximum link vector element may be represented as a variable current_max ( i ), where value i identifies the protection link . once the maximum link vector elements are defined , flow proceeds to step 304 where proposed link vectors are determined for each protection link . the proposed link vector is determined by adding the defined working path bandwidth requirements for each srg to the current link vector elements . referring to fig5 , assume the defined working path for which protection is needed uses 10 bandwidth units of srg 1 and 10 bandwidth units of srg 2 . the proposed link vectors are determined by adding the working path bandwidth units to the protection link bandwidth units . thus , the proposed link vector for protection link e 5 is ( 10 + 10 , 10 + 10 , 10 + 0 ) or ( 20 , 20 , 10 ). similarly , the proposed link vectors for protection links e 6 , e 9 and e 10 are ( 20 , 15 , 20 ), ( 10 , 10 , 0 ) and ( 10 , 10 , 0 ), respectively . at step 306 , the proposed maximum link vector element is determined for each proposed protection link . this is performed in the same manner as determining the current maximum link vector element described above . the proposed maximum link vector element may be represented as a variable proposed_max ( i ), where value i identifies the protection link . at step 308 , the link cost for each protection is link determined by determining the difference between the proposed maximum link vector element and the maximum link vector element . this may be represent as proposed_max ( i )− current_max ( i ), where i identifies the protection link . this difference is the link cost . referring to the example in fig5 , the link cost for protection link e 5 is 10 bandwidth units representing the difference the proposed maximum link vector element 20 and maximum link vector element 10 . the link costs of links e 6 , e 9 and e 10 are 0 , 10 and 10 respectively . referring to fig3 , once the link costs are determined for each protection link at step 214 , the path costs are determined for the protection paths at step 216 . the path cost is determined by adding the link costs for each protection link forming the protection path . referring to the example in fig5 , the path cost for protection path a - f - e is 10 representing the sum of the link cost for protection link e 5 and the link cost for protection link e 6 . the path cost for new protection path a - h - e is 20 . flow proceeds to step 218 where the protection path having the lowest path cost is selected to provide protection for the defined working path . this minimizes the addition of new protection bandwidth . in the example shown in fig5 , protection path a - f - e has the lower path cost and thus is selected to protect the defined working path . flow proceeds to step 220 where the link vectors for the protection links in the chosen protection path are updated to reflect the additional bandwidth units for the defined working path . in the example shown in fig5 , the link vector for protection link e 5 is updated to ( 20 , 20 , 10 ) and the link vector for protection link e 6 is updated to ( 20 , 15 , 20 ). the alternate new protection path a - h - e is not established . the processing performed to determine the appropriate protection path may be implemented by processors on one or more network elements . thus , the invention may be embodied in the form of computer program code containing instructions embodied in tangible media , such as floppy diskettes , cd - roms , hard drives , or any other computer - readable storage medium , wherein , when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer , the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention . also included may be embodiments in the form of computer program code , for example , whether stored in a storage medium , loaded into and / or executed by a computer , or as a data signal transmitted , whether a modulated carrier wave or not , over some transmission medium , such as over electrical wiring or cabling , through fiber optics , or via electromagnetic radiation , wherein , when the computer program code is loaded into and executed by a computer , the computer becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention . when implemented on a general - purpose microprocessor , the computer program code segments configure the microprocessor to create specific logic circuits . the invention being thus described , it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways . such variations are not to be regarded as departure from the spirit and scope of the invention , and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims .