Patent ID: 8902769

Claim:
A wireless access point (WAP) configured to support a wireless home network among a plurality of wireless devices contending with one another for a communication link to the WAP over a shared wireless communication medium; and the WAP comprising: a link monitor configured to monitor dynamic arbitration parameters including at least one of a relative efficiency and a relative utilization of each communication link between the WAP and a corresponding one of the plurality of wireless devices and to detect an onset of oversubscription of the shared wireless communication medium by the plurality of wireless devices; and a link manager coupled to the link monitor and configured responsive to an oversubscription indication therefrom to determine at least a relative cost of each wireless device's communication link from the WAP based on both the dynamic arbitration parameters together with static arbitration parameters and to limit access of a selected one of the plurality of wireless devices associated with the most costly communication link to the WAP; wherein the access limitations include at least one of: transcoding the corresponding communication link to a lower data throughput, dropping packets of the subject communication link, and signaling a content delivery source to stop delivery of the content associated with the communication link; thereby avoiding oversubscription of the shared wireless communication medium.