Patent ID: 8358657

Claim:
A method of controlling the flow of data traffic for a broadcast signal implementing adaptive coding and modulation, the method comprising: dynamically assigning a modcode of a plurality of modcodes to each of a plurality of data packets based at least in part on a signal quality of a link on which each respective packet is destined; associating a timestamp with each of the plurality of data packets; transmitting a subset of the plurality of data packets according to a defined order of progression, wherein the transmitting according to the defined order of progression comprises: transmitting each data packet associated with a first modcode of the plurality of modcodes; and incrementing to a next higher order second modcode of the plurality of modcodes to transmit a data packet associated with an oldest timestamp of the plurality of data packets associated with the second modcode; and interrupting the defined order of progression upon expiration of a timer to transmit an out of order packet with a timestamp exceeding a first threshold age, wherein the out of order packet comprises one of the plurality of packets not included in the subset.