Patent ID: 7917640

Claim:
A communication bandwidth control method for a broadcast communication system in which any of a plurality of user terminals acquires a transmission right of first data, transmits the first data and distributes the first data transmitted from a first user terminal to a second user terminal via a communication network, the method comprising: collecting and storing values of communication bandwidths usable by the user terminals in correspondence with information identifying the user terminals; determining whether a first data source user terminal among the plurality of user terminals has acquired the transmission right of the first data; if determined that the first data source user terminal has acquired the transmission right of the first data, setting a second data communication bandwidth of the first data source user terminal, usable to send or to receive the second data, to be a communication bandwidth which has been collected and stored as corresponding to the first data source user terminal, and setting the second data communication bandwidth of another user terminal, usable to send or to receive the second data, to be a difference between a communication bandwidth which has been collected and stored as corresponding to the other user terminal, and a first data communication bandwidth required for reception of the first data; and if determined that no user terminal has acquired the transmission right of the first data, setting the second data communication bandwidth usable to send or to receive the second data for each of the user terminals to be the communication bandwidth collected and stored as being usable by each of the user terminals, respectively.