Patent ID: 7864803

Claim:
A method comprising: determining, via at least one network device, a high watermark threshold for a subrate service, where the subrate service includes access to an original bandwidth available between a service provider and a plurality of user devices, and where the high watermark threshold is below the original bandwidth, where the high watermark threshold comprises a first high watermark threshold and a second high watermark threshold, the second high watermark threshold being greater than the first high watermark threshold, and where determining the high watermark threshold includes determining the first high watermark threshold and the second high watermark threshold; comparing, via the at least one network device, a real-time traffic demand to the high watermark threshold, where comparing the real-time traffic demand includes comparing the real-time traffic demand to the first high watermark threshold and comparing the real-time traffic demand to the second high watermark threshold; adding, via the at least one network device, a temporary bandwidth to the original bandwidth when the real-time traffic demand is greater than or equal to the high watermark threshold, where adding the temporary bandwidth to the original bandwidth includes: adding a first temporary bandwidth to the original bandwidth in response to the real-time traffic demand being greater than or equal to the first high watermark threshold, and adding the first temporary bandwidth and a second temporary bandwidth to the original bandwidth in response to the real-time traffic demand being greater than or equal to the second high watermark threshold; establishing a priority policy to define access, by each of the plurality of user devices, to the temporary bandwidth, where the priority policy includes prioritizing a first user device, of the plurality of user devices, associated with data from a data center over a second user device, of the plurality of user devices, that is not associated with the data from the data center; and allocating, based on the priority policy, the temporary bandwidth to each of the plurality of user devices.