Patent ID: 8593950

Claim:
A method for allocating a portion of a shareable bandwidth for a network, comprising: receiving, by a processor, data from a plurality of subscribers for transmission; allocating, by the processor, a minimum reserved bandwidth to each of the plurality of subscribers in accordance with a respective service level agreement for each of the plurality of subscribers; and allocating, by the processor, the portion of the shareable bandwidth to a subscriber of the plurality of subscribers in accordance with a weight factor, wherein the weight factor is assigned based on a customer loyalty measurement, wherein the shareable bandwidth comprises a leftover bandwidth after the allocating of the minimum reserved bandwidth to each of the plurality of subscribers, wherein the weight factor is used to determine a shareable ratio for a service flow associated with one of the plurality of subscribers, wherein the portion of the shareable bandwidth is allocated in accordance with the shareable ratio, wherein the shareable ratio for the service flow associated with one of the plurality of subscribers is determined by a weighted bandwidth associated with the service flow associated with one of the plurality of subscribers divided by a sum of a plurality of weighted bandwidths associated with a plurality of service flows associated with all other ones of the plurality of subscribers, wherein the weighted bandwidth is derived from the weight factor, the minimum reserved bandwidth, and a maximum sustained bandwidth associated each of the plurality of subscribers.