Patent ID: 7450609

Claim:
A method for allocating bandwidth among members of two statistical multiplexing groups having overlapping members, comprising: (1) identifying a first group of services having a first bandwidth requirement BW — 1; (2) identifying a second group of services having a second bandwidth requirement BW — 2; (3) identifying services common to both said first and second groups; wherein: said first group of services exclusive of the common services comprises a subgroup A to be allocated a bandwidth BW_A; said common services comprise a subgroup B to be allocated a bandwidth BW_B; and said second group of services exclusive of the common services comprises a subgroup C to be allocated a bandwidth BW_C; (4) allocating the bandwidth BW_B so said common services are provided for in the total bandwidth available for allocation; and (5) after step (4), deriving the bandwidths BW_A and BW_C in accordance with the allocated bandwidth BW_B, wherein step (4) and step (5) are performed prior to transmission of said first group of services or said second group of services to end users, and wherein the bandwidth BW_B is allocated by averaging the values: BW — 1*need-parameter/need-parameterA+B, BW — 2*need-parameterB/need-parameterB+C, BW_Total*need-parameterB/need-parameterA+B+C; where (i) BW_Total is the total bandwidth available for allocation, (ii) need-parameter (x) is the total bandwidth requirement of subgroup x, and (iii) BW_B is bounded by a minimum of BW — 1+BW — 2−BW_Total.