Patent ID: 6870834

Claim:
A digital subscriber line (XDSL) communication system, comprising: a plurality of subscriber systems each having an associated availability guarantee value; a first pool of modems having a first number of XDSL modems; a second pool of modems having a second number of XDSL modems; and a communication server coupled to the plurality of subscriber systems, the first pool of modems, and the second pool of modems, wherein the communication server selectively couples a subscriber system to an available modem in either the first pool of modems or the second pool of modems based upon the availability guarantee value associated with the subscriber system; wherein a first ratio of a number of the subscriber systems having an availability guarantee value specifying the first pool of modems to the first number of modems is smaller than a second ratio of a number of the subscriber systems having an availability guarantee value specifying the second pool of modems to the second number of modems.