Patent ID: 8879912

Claim:
A bandwidth control method in which a first communication device allocates a bandwidth for signal transmission to each of a plurality of second communication devices connected to the first communication device in a communication system including the first communication device and the plurality of second communication devices, the bandwidth control method comprising: detecting, by the first communication device, a utilization state for each second communication device; determining, by the first communication device, which second communication devices of the plurality of second communication devices satisfy a predetermined condition by comparing the utilization state for each second communication device to a predetermined threshold; transmitting, by the first communication device, a sleep control command to each second communication device that satisfies the predetermined condition to enter a power saving state; selecting, by the first communication device, control target devices from among the second communication devices that do not satisfy the predetermined condition; and determining, by the first communication device, a bandwidth to be allocated to each of the selected control target devices.