Patent Document ID: 8174974
Application ID: 12617442
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A network device, comprising: a transceiver to send and receive data over a network; and a processor that is operative to perform actions, comprising: receiving a number of voluntary requests for transmission of data over the network within an allocated time frame, at least one voluntary request being received from a traffic source device that is different from another traffic source device for which another voluntary request is received; receiving historical traffic data, in part, from at least one routing device within the network; determining a rate cap based on an allocation policy, the historical traffic data, and the received number of voluntary requests, by: receiving a current network utilization; receiving an average target utilization; if the current utilization is greater than the average target utilization, determining the rate cap from a prior rate cap times a multiplicative decrement value, and determining the number of permits based on an absolute value of a prior number of permits times the multiplicative decrement value; else if a change in the current network utilization is greater than zero then determining the rate cap from ((the prior rate cap times the prior number of permits) plus an additive increment value) divided by the number of voluntary requests, and determining the number of permits as equal to the number of voluntary requests; else determining the rate cap as the prior rate cap times the prior number of permits divided by the number of voluntary requests, and determining the number of permits as equal to the number of voluntary requests; and providing a non-zero rate cap value based on the determined number of permits in response to at least some of the received voluntary requests to provide permission to send traffic over the network within the allocated time frame.