Patent ID: 7061861

Claim:
In a metropolitan area network, a method for implementing weighted fair flow control on the network, the method comprising the steps of: a) accepting a plurality of local input flows at each of a plurality of MPS for transport across a communications channel; b) transporting data among the MPS via the communications channel asynchronously, wherein the plurality of MPS include at least one upstream MPS and one downstream MPS; c) for each MPS: c1) assigning a QoS to each local input flow; c2) allocating a portion of insertion traffic bandwidth of the MPS to each local input flow in accordance with the QoS to implement weighted bandwidth allocation; c3) inserting the insertion traffic of the MPS onto the communications channel using an available opening in the communications channel; c4) if the insertion traffic needs to be reduced, reducing the allocation to those local input flows having a lower QoS before reducing the allocation to those local input flows having a higher QoS; and d) if the downstream MPS experiences congestion, throttling the insertion traffic of the upstream MPS to implement fair bandwidth allocation.