Patent ID: 7694001

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: plural user stations each configured to communicate with remote user stations using a common equipment in a single housing having a communication capability, a performance of a communication conducted by each of the plural user stations is based on a currently allocated portion of the communication capability of the common equipment that is currently allocated to each of the plural user stations, and the performance of the communication conducted by each of the plural user stations includes a Quality of Service; a memory that hosts a database configured to store an indication of the currently allocated portion of the communication capability that is allocated to each of the plural user stations and store an indication of a planned-to-be-allocated portion of the communication capability that is planned to be allocated in the future to at least a first user station in the plural user stations and that is not currently allocated to the first user station; and a portion changing mechanism configured to calculate a projected change in the Quality of Service in the performance of the communication conducted by each second user station other than the first user station in the plural user stations based on the stored indication of the planned-to-be-allocated portion of the communication capability that is planned to be allocated to the first user station in the future and that is not currently allocated to the first user station, store, in the database, the projected change in the Quality of Service in the performance of the communication conducted by each of the second user stations based on the stored indication of the planned-to-be-allocated portion of the communication capability that is planned to be allocated to the first user station in the future and that is not currently allocated to the first user station, inform each of the second user stations of the projected change in the Quality of Service, receive approval for the change from at least one of the second user stations in the plural second user stations, and change the currently allocated portion of the communication capability of the common equipment that is currently allocated to the first user station to be the planned-to-be-allocated portion after receiving the approval for the change from the at least one second user station.