Patent ID: 8611814

Claim:
A communication system comprising: a source apparatus; a destination apparatus; and an intermediate apparatus being for transmitting signals received from the source apparatus or signals derived from the signals to the destination apparatus or other intermediate apparatus; wherein the communication system further comprises: a quality of service determination unit for deriving indicators of the quality of service experienced by the destination apparatus and/or for deriving a target quality of service for the destination apparatus; and an indicator change detection unit for detecting a change in an indicator of the quality of service experienced by the destination apparatus and/or for detecting a change in the target quality of service; wherein: the destination apparatus comprises a bandwidth allocation determining unit operable, in response to the detection of a change in an indicator of the quality of service experienced by the destination apparatus and/or in the target quality of service detected by the indicator change detection unit, to determine a bandwidth to be allocated to the intermediate apparatus, for transmission from the intermediate apparatus to the destination apparatus, that will attain or maintain a balance between a measure of the quality of service experienced at the destination apparatus and a measure of the quality of service experienced at the intermediate apparatus in order that the number of data packets received at the intermediate apparatus is substantially equal to the number of data packets received at the destination apparatus; and the intermediate apparatus comprises a receiving unit to receive notification from the destination apparatus of the bandwidth allocation determined by the bandwidth allocation determining unit; and a bandwidth allocation unit to allocate a bandwidth to the intermediate apparatus for transmission from the intermediate apparatus to the destination apparatus in accordance with the received notification or in accordance with a revised notification obtained by revising the notification.