US Patent 7664034 Systems and methods for collective bandwidth throttling

In an exemplary method, a computer system connects to a computer network that comprises one or more other computer systems. The computer system communicates with a remote system that is in electronic communication with the computer network via a communication link. The computer system coordinates its use of the communication link with the one or more other computer systems' use of the communication link such that a total bandwidth used by computer systems in the computer network does not exceed a defined maximum value.