Patent ID: 9716668
Date: 2017-07-25
CPC Classifications: H04L

Claim:
1. A method executable by a gateway device that communicates with a first node and a second node via a data transmission link and with a content source providing content via a network that is separate from the data transmission link, the method comprising: processing a first request for the content provided by the content source at the gateway device, wherein the first request is received by the gateway device from the first node on the data transmission link; processing a second request for the content provided by the content source at the gateway device, wherein the second request is received from the second node on the data transmission link, and wherein the second node is different from the first node; recognizing, by the gateway device, that the first request from the first node and the second request from the second node are requesting the same content from the content source on the network; and when the gateway device recognizes that the first and second requests are requesting the same content from the content source, the gateway device replacing the first and second requests with a single request for the commonly-requested content from the content source via the network and also allocating shared bandwidth on the data transmission link for the commonly-requested content requested by the single request, wherein the shared bandwidth is accessible to both the first node and the second node on the data transmission link.