A method of optimizing bandwidth usage in a link aggregated network includes identifying available bandwidth on a plurality of data links in a link aggregation group, selecting the data link with the least available bandwidth, and determining whether the available bandwidth of the selected data link is less than a guaranteed bandwidth of an incoming data flow. If the available bandwidth of the selected data link is less than the guaranteed bandwidth of the incoming data flow, the method includes selecting the data link with the next least available bandwidth and repeating the previous steps until the available bandwidth of the selected data link is greater than the guaranteed bandwidth of the incoming data flow. The method further includes assigning the data flow to the data link determined to have an available bandwidth greater than the guaranteed bandwidth of the incoming data flow.