Patent ID: 7756031

Claim:
A system for communicatively connecting a first communication device and a second communication device to comprising: an adapter device communicatively connected to the first communication device and the second communication device; a link of limited communicative bandwidth, the link communicatively connected to the adapter device and the digital packet-switched network, the bandwidth of the link is shared by the first communication device and the second communications device for communication over the digital packet-switched network; a bandwidth limiter connected to the adapter device and to the second communication device, the bandwidth limiter, if operationally switched “on”, restricting the bandwidth of the link available to the second communication device and, if operationally switched “off”, not restricting the bandwidth of the link available to the second communication device; and a switch connected to the bandwidth limiter and to the first communication device, for detecting communications by the first communication device and (i) operationally switching “on” the bandwidth limiter if the first communication device requires greater portion of the bandwidth for communications of the first communication device over the link with the digital packet-switched network and (ii) operationally switching “off” the bandwidth limiter if the bandwidth can then accommodate communications of the first communication device and the second communications device, in combination, over the link with the digital packet-switched network; wherein the system optimizes usage of the bandwidth of the link by preferentially accommodating communications of the first communication device requiring greater of the bandwidth.