Patent ID: 8867348

Claim:
A method for a wireless communication system to manage backhaul capacity between radio access network (RAN) infrastructure and a plurality of base stations, wherein the base stations concurrently serve a wireless communication device (WCD) each over a respective air interface and each have a respective backhaul link with the RAN infrastructure, the method comprising: determining separately for each base station a ratio of (i) a quantity of a first type of data carried by the base station's respective backhaul link to (ii) a quantity of a second type of data carried by the base station's respective backhaul link; determining that a given one of the base stations has the lowest determined ratio of the determined ratios; and responsive to determining that the given base station has the lowest determined ratio of the determined ratios, the system transitioning to a restricted mode in which the given base station communicates with the WCD the first type of data and the second type of data but each other base station of the plurality communicates with the WCD the second type of data and not the first type of data.