Patent ID: 8713196
Filing Date: 2014-04-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
1. A data communications system comprising: at least one controller device configured to communicate with a plurality of client devices, each client device being capable of establishing a data communication link with the controller device; wherein the controller device is configured to: determine a usage based multiplier value for each client device based on an amount of data transferred using the data communication link of each client device during a first time period; monitor the data communication links of the client devices; adjust one or more usage based multiplier values of the client devices according to amounts of data transferred using the data communication links being monitored by the controller device during a second time period; apply a rate limiting scheme based on the usage based multiplier values if a congestion is detected in one or more of the data communication links, the rate limiting scheme including adjusting an allocation of available bandwidth to the client devices according to the usage based multiplier values of the client devices; determine if spare bandwidth exists on the data communication links after the rate limiting scheme has been applied; and allocate the spare bandwidth to one or more of the client devices; wherein the at least one controller device is further configured to determine a product of the usage based multiplier value and a peak information rate for each client device, and wherein the one or more of the client devices allocated with the spared bandwidth are those that are operating below their peak information rates, wherein allocating the spare bandwidth includes: