Patent ID: 7856497

Claim:
A method of providing network access across a shared communications medium between competing users, the method comprising: monitoring network access usage by each user during a time interval; forecasting network access usage by each user during a future time interval based on said monitored network access usage by each user, wherein said forecasting comprises predicting future network access usage each user based upon monitored past network access usage patterns of each user, wherein the usage patterns of each user are analyzed to determine an appropriate algorithm to apply for forecasting network access usage; and based on said forecasted network access usage, allocating network access to each user for the future time interval, wherein allocating network access comprises prioritizing each user, and wherein prioritizing each user comprises: comparing said monitored network access usages for each user with a specified respective minimum levels of network access for each user, and awarding priority to qualified users when said respective monitored network access usage for the qualified users falls below the qualified users' specified respective minimum level of network access.