Patent ID: 7957291

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a communication module to receive a stream of communication traffic, and to generate, based on fixed wireless signaling characteristics, communication signals comprising the communication traffic in the stream for output to a wireless communication link, the fixed wireless signaling characteristics providing a fixed communication signal rate on the wireless communication link; and a rate control system operatively coupled to the communication module, to output the communication traffic stream to the communication module and to control an effective communication traffic rate of the wireless communication link by controlling an amount of the communication traffic that is incorporated into the communication signals through control of a rate of the communication traffic stream, wherein the rate control system comprises: a communication traffic sorter to determine to which traffic group of a plurality of traffic groups received communication traffic belongs; a communication traffic transfer module, operatively coupled to the communication traffic sorter, to combine the received communication traffic into the communication traffic stream in accordance with a transfer scheme that is based on the plurality of traffic groups; and a rate controller, operatively coupled to the communication traffic transfer module, to control the rate of the communication traffic stream by controlling the transfer scheme, wherein the transfer scheme specifies respective transfer rates at which communication traffic of the plurality of traffic groups may be combined into the communication traffic stream, wherein the respective transfer rates comprise a committed transfer rate at which received communication traffic of a traffic group is to be combined into the communication traffic stream, a maximum transfer rate up to which received communication traffic of a traffic group is to be combined into the communication traffic stream, or both a committed transfer rate and a maximum transfer rate.