Patent ID: 7035211

Claim:
A broadband switching subnet comprising: at least one ingress selectively connectable to a link to a respective signal source and at least one egress selectively connectable to a link to a selected signal receiving system; at least one switch for transmitting information-carrying asynchronously transferred data cells from the ingress to the egress; a subnet control means for accepting and establishing a virtual connection at a predetermined base bandwidth between the ingress and the egress via said switch, and a bandwidth control means automatically detecting said data cells received at the ingress, automatically determining whether the currently allocated bandwidth is insufficient for the reception rate of said data cells, and, if the rate is insufficient, automatically initiating and causing the subnet control means selectively to allocate additional bandwidth as available in addition to the base bandwidth for the transmission of the cells to the egress and causing a feedback signal to be sent to the ingress to advise a signal source of a new permitted sending rate.