Patent ID: 7808913

Claim:
A method for allocating a network bandwidth timeslot to a network unit by a terminal, the terminal configured to serve a plurality of downstream network units and to receive upstream communications from a plurality of network units in respective time slots on a time division basis, the terminal further configured to apportion upstream bandwidth among the plurality of network units by granting a terminal-determined variable duration to respective timeslots of network units in response to a request from a network unit, the method comprising: storing, at one or more of the plurality of network units, local information destined for the terminal; requesting, by the one or more of the plurality of network units, at least a portion of network bandwidth, the request including a transmission time of stored local data awaiting transmission from the one or more of the plurality of network units to the terminal and a transmission time of data predicted to arrive at the one or more of the plurality of network units during a waiting time, wherein the waiting time is an estimate of the time required to transmit from the one or more of the plurality of network units to the terminal data expected to be received in an interval between the request and the initiation of transmission from the one or more of the plurality of network units to the terminal, wherein the data expected to be received is determined at least in part on actual received data during a previous waiting time and a weight factor, the weight factor being updateable using an algorithm including at least a step size and a prediction error; employing the prediction error to adaptively adjust the weight factor to improve an accuracy of the determination of an amount of the data expected to be received during the waiting time; and receiving a granted bandwidth allocation upper-bounded by a smaller value of the bandwidth request and a maximum bandwidth parameter.