Patent attributes
Approaches scheduling and allocation of communication bandwidth across a communication channel provide the opportunity for improved network utilization. A network device is configured to allocating its bandwidth utilization within a communication network, wherein bandwidth allocation is governed by a utilization policy. The network device conducts communication activities within the communication network. When the network device deviates from the utilization policy in scheduling or conducting network activities, a penalty can be imposed on the network device for deviating from the utilization policy. Where one or more network conditions exceed predetermined tolerance levels, the offending network device can be required to reallocate its scheduled activities.