Patent ID: 7826364

Claim:
A system for controlling the flow of data traffic through a network, said system comprised of: an access control system (ACS) including at least a processor executing an access control algorithm; an aggregation packet switch having at least one trunk port and at least one network port, wherein said aggregation packet switch is connected to at least one protected link via said at least one trunk port and is connected to the network via said at least one network port, said trunk port configured to aggregate data traffic received via the at least one network port; one or more user-to-network interfaces (UNIs) that are configured to connect customer equipment to the network through one or more communication paths that transport data traffic between the aggregation packet switch and the UNIs, each communication path configured to carry data traffic including a plurality of classes of service; and a management interface over a dedicated management network configured to carry management traffic and connected to the access control system, the aggregation packet switch and the one or more UNIs, wherein said ACS monitors data traffic on said trunk port and when a certain data traffic threshold value is reached the access control algorithm selects at least one communication path of the one or more communication paths and sends a first message via the management interface to the respective one or more UNIs associated with the selected at least one communication path to limit data traffic of a particular class of service on the selected at least one communications path to a lower amount of data traffic.