Patent ID: 8040894

Claim:
A method of transferring to second customer premises equipment, over a network, a flow of data received from first customer premises equipment, the method comprising a) causing the network to provision a first circuit connection, having a first data transfer rate, between the first customer premises equipment and the second customer premises equipment, b) initiating transferring of the received flow of data to the second customer premises equipment using said first circuit connection, and c) if the first circuit connection becomes congested as defined by one or more predefined parameters while said flow of data is still being received from the first customer premises equipment, i) stopping said transferring of the received flow of data to the second customer premises equipment using said first circuit connection and buffering any further data received from the first customer premises equipment, ii) causing the network to drop the first circuit connection, iii) causing the network to provision a second circuit connection, having a second data transfer rate, between the first customer premises equipment and the second customer premises equipment, the second data transfer rate being different from the first data transfer rate, and iv) resuming the transferring of the flow of data to the second customer premises equipment, including said any further data that was buffered, the resumed transferring being over the second circuit connection.