Patent ID: 7619973

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: network system equipment coupled to, and providing connections between, a circuit switched telephone network, a plurality of customer premise equipment (“CPE”) located at a plurality of customer premises, and the internet via a network terminator, for providing voice and data services to the plurality of customer premises; and a network control system, coupled to the network system equipment, for coordinating connections between the plurality of CPEs and the circuit switched telephone network and the internet, and for managing traffic therebetween, the network control system including: a first database that includes system configuration information and configuration information for each CPE coupled to the network system equipment; a second database that includes information indicative of service connections currently being utilized in the communications system and the usage by each CPE; and a control processor for periodically polling the first database and the second database to determine a bandwidth level currently being utilized in the communications system and throttling the amount of data services entering the communications system in response to the determined bandwidth utilization level using a two-tiered bandwidth throttling technique which comprises: (i) performing a first type of bandwidth throttling if the determined bandwidth utilization level exceeds a first predetermined level which is less than a maximum useable bandwidth level and (ii) performing both the first type of bandwidth throttling and a second type of bandwidth throttling if the determined bandwidth utilization level exceeds a second predetermined level which is less than the maximum useable bandwidth level, wherein the first type of bandwidth throttling includes providing first command data to the network terminator to thereby enable the network terminator to control the amount of data services entering the communications system via the internet, and the second type of bandwidth throttling includes providing second command data to the CPEs to thereby enable the CPEs to control the amount of data services entering the communications system via the customer premises.