Patent ID: 8170051

Claim:
A method of sharing time on a shared medium between an access network and one or more in-home networks, comprising: determining a guaranteed interval period comprising a guaranteed interval start time and a guaranteed interval end time within a periodic interval of time based on a policy at one or more stations in an access network, wherein the policy includes a guaranteed proportion of time or a duration within the period interval of time for the access network to utilize; the one or more stations in the access network monitoring a traffic load on the one or more in-home networks, wherein the access network and the one or more in-home networks are different networks; determining at the one or more stations in the access network a first interval start time and a first interval end time within the periodic interval of time based on said monitoring, wherein the first interval start times and first interval end times are not required to be identical to the guaranteed interval start time and the guaranteed interval end time, respectively; providing the first interval start time and the first interval end time of the one or more stations in the access network to the one or more in-home networks; receiving an in-home interval period from each of the one or more in-home networks, wherein each in-home interval period is based on the provided first interval start time and the first interval end time of the one or more stations in the access network; after receiving each of the in-home interval periods from the one or more in-home networks, the one or more stations in the access network monitoring the traffic load on the one or more in-home networks to determine that the access network or one of the in-home networks requires more bandwidth; and in response to determining that the access network or one of the in-home networks requires more bandwidth, increasing or decreasing the guaranteed interval period, respectively.