Patent ID: 8441924

Claim:
A system comprising: a plurality of gateway routers including at least a first gateway router and a second gateway router, each of said plurality of gateway routers configured to route both voice and broadband communications, wherein said first gateway router is assigned to route voice communications for a subscriber, said second gateway router is assigned to route broadband communications for the subscriber and is further assigned to route voice communications for a second subscriber, and one of said plurality of gateway routers other than said second gateway router is assigned to route broadband communications for the second subscriber; an optical line terminal communicatively coupled to said first gateway router and said second gateway router; and an optical network terminal communicatively coupled to said optical line terminal; wherein said optical network terminal is configured to determine a call priority based on a communication associated with the subscriber, and to selectively direct communications from said first gateway router to said second gateway router based on said call priority when operation of said first gateway router meets a predetermined threshold.