Patent ID: 8169912

Claim:
A method of dynamic bandwidth sharing between a plurality of peer client nodes that share network link resources in a communication network comprising: receiving, at the bandwidth management node, a bandwidth adjustment request over an optical link via a connectionless packet service from a requesting peer client node, wherein the bandwidth adjustment request specifies an amount of requested bandwidth; multicasting, by the bandwidth management node, the bandwidth adjustment request to at least some of the peer client nodes that share network link resources with the requesting peer client node, wherein the multicast bandwidth adjustment request identifies the client node that requested additional bandwidth and is forwarded over the optical link via the connectionless packet services; receiving, by the bandwidth management node, a response from one or more of the peer client nodes specifying at least some bandwidth offered for trade; determining, by the bandwidth management node, whether a total bandwidth offered for trade by the peer client nodes is sufficient to satisfy the bandwidth adjustment request; informing, by the bandwidth management node, each peer about the bandwidth adjustment results; and sending, by the bandwidth management node, a notification message with adjusted Committed Information Rates (CIRs) to all trading peers.