Patent ID: 9253237
Filing Date: 2016-02-02
CPC Classification: H04L

Claim Text:
1. A method comprising: at a Session Traversal Utilities for Network Address Translators (STUN) enabled router device among multiple router devices in a network: receiving a STUN request from a source client device, the STUN request destined for a destination client device along a network path that traverses the multiple router devices; adding to a payload of the STUN request first node information including a node hop-limit that specifies a number of hops that a packet is allowed before being discarded by a router, a hop-count that specifies a number of nodes that a packet has traversed, a direction attribute that specifies whether a packet is a request or a response, and an attribute of one of bandwidth, processing load, or congestion at the router device; forwarding the modified STUN request toward the destination client device along the network path; receiving from the destination client device a STUN response that includes (i) the first node information that was copied from the STUN request into the STUN response at the destination client device, and (ii) further node information including a node hop-limit, a hop-count, a direction attribute, and an attribute of bandwidth, processing load, or congestion of a first other router device of the multiple router devices, wherein the further node information was added to the STUN request or the STUN response by the first other router device as the STUN request and STUN response traversed the multiple routers along the network path; evaluating the further node information in the STUN response, including the one of bandwidth, processing load, or congestion added by the first other router device; and if the evaluating indicates that the first other router device has less bandwidth or a reduced processing capability relative to the router device, reducing a bit rate or a quality of rich media received from the source client device before forwarding the rich media to the first other router device toward the destination client device.