1. A method for dynamic, substantially real time control of bandwidth allocation to each of a plurality of applications in a communications network comprising: determining whether at least one received message is from a known application or an unknown application based on packet parameter data representative of known applications stored in an application module, wherein the received message includes a packet header identifying its source application in technical network terms; and generating, in substantially real time, technical network flow control instructions for controlling allocation of a portion of a predetermined bandwidth of an access point of the network to the received application message in accordance with a bandwidth allocation strategy, wherein the strategy includes at least one known application and a bandwidth constraint and priority for each of the least one known applications.