Patent ID: 8224983

Claim:
A method for allocating network bandwidth to users in a system having an authentication database storing user profiles, an access control device having a plurality of network interfaces coupled to a plurality of user devices and a provisioning device coupled to the access control device, comprising: configuring the access control device to operate in a first state, wherein operation in the first state comprises regulating network bandwidth usage for a set of users based on a first network bandwidth limit associated with each of the users, and each of the set of users is associated with one of the plurality of user devices; receiving a first network communication from a first network application running on a first user device coupled to one of the plurality of network interfaces; accessing a first user profile for a first user associated with the first user device from the authentication database, wherein the first user profile comprises one or more attributes associated with the first user and the first user profile was retrieved from the authentication database based on credentials associated with the first user; determining a second network bandwidth limit for the first user based on the first network bandwidth limit associated with each of the users and the one or more attributes associated with the first user; and dynamically updating at least one of the first network bandwidth limits associated with the plurality of users based on the second network bandwidth limit including configuring the access control device to operate in a second state, wherein operation of the access control device in the second state comprises regulating network bandwidth usage for each of the plurality of users based on the first network bandwidth limits.