Patent ID: 7782789

Claim:
A method for optimizing bandwidth utilization in a communications network comprising: responsive to a measurement of a plurality of communication parameters of a commutated bitstream which is transmitted from a data source to a data client, determining a data rate difference and a data latency at the data client; selecting a new commutation format definition at the data source based on said data rate difference and a comparison of the data latency to a reference data latency value; and formatting the commutated bitstream at the data source with the new commutation format definition, wherein the plurality of communication parameters comprise an effective receive data rate (D Eff ) of the commutated bitstream and a data receive time (T Rx ) measured by said data client, the data rate difference determined at said data client by comparing the effective receive data rate (D Eff ) to a transmit data rate (D TX ) measured by said data source, and said data latency determined by comparing the data receive time (T RX ) to a data transmit time (T Tx ).