Patent ID: 7079534

Claim:
A method of operating a communication system, the method comprising: in a signaling processor, receiving and processing Signaling System Seven (SS7) messages for a plurality of calls to select virtual paths for the calls and to transfer control messages for the calls identifying the virtual paths; in an interworking system, receiving the control messages and receiving user communications for the calls in a time division multiplex format; in the interworking system, converting the user communications to an asynchronous format and transferring the user communications in the asynchronous format over the virtual paths in response to the control messages; in a bandwidth management system, receiving and processing the control messages to determine if a first one of the virtual paths requires additional bandwidth and if the additional bandwidth would cause the first virtual path to exceed a maximum bandwidth allocation; in the bandwidth management system, if the additional bandwidth is required and would not cause the first virtual path to exceed the maximum bandwidth allocation, then to determine if a second one of the virtual paths has spare bandwidth; and in the bandwidth management system, if the additional bandwidth would not cause the first virtual path to exceed the maximum bandwidth allocation, then to allocate the additional bandwidth to the first virtual path and to de-allocate the spare bandwidth from the second virtual path.