Patent ID: 7633925

Claim:
A method of allocating physical bandwidth among a plurality of virtual networks on the same shared network, comprising: selecting a master server for allocating physical bandwidth on the shared network in response to a first server detecting that no master server devices are active on the shared network, wherein said first server commences operation as an active master server; dividing the available physical bandwidth of the shared network, by said active master server device, into assignable time slot or frequency slot units; ordering streams, being transmitted over the shared network, into priority groups by said active master server device; assigning time slot or frequency slot units of physical bandwidth to said priority groups in response to the bandwidth requirements of said streams and the transmission priority of said priority group; assigning specific timeslot or frequency slot units of physical bandwidth to specific streams within each of said priority groups in response to an equitable sharing of physical bandwidth between said virtual networks sharing said shared network; and reallocating said units of bandwidth if sufficient physical bandwidth on said shared network is not available to simultaneously support bandwidth requirements of said virtual networks.