Patent ID: 8201205

Claim:
A method comprising: at a user device, receiving from a transmit delay queue a message for upstream transmission; determining, at the user device, if the message has an appropriate priority, wherein the message is assigned a higher priority when the message relates to video-on-demand functions and a lower priority when the message relates to other functions; if the message has the appropriate priority, transmitting the upstream message; if the message does not have the appropriate priority, receiving via a downstream communications channel, within a content network, indicium of a bandwidth utilization level of an upstream communications channel within the content network; making a determination if said bandwidth utilization level exceeds a threshold level; if said bandwidth utilization level exceeds the threshold level and the message is delayable, placing the message in the transmit delay queue and dynamically assigning the message a new priority; and if said bandwidth utilization level exceeds the threshold level and the message is not delayable, canceling the message transmission.