Patent ID: 8179909

Claim:
A method for harmonizing packets of a multimedia stream, wherein each packet has an associated input priority level, and wherein the input priority levels of the packets are specified by IEEE protocol standards, comprising the step of: converting the input priority level of an input packet received by a home gateway to a harmonizes priority level; processing the input packet in the home gateway according to the harmonized priority level; and converting, in the home gateway, the harmonized priority level to an output priority level associated with a corresponding output packet after the processing, wherein the home gateway includes a protocol stack, wherein the protocol stack includes physical, data link (DL), Internet Protocol (IP), transport, and application layers, and wherein the converting to the standard priority level is performed by a lower harmonization layer between the DL and IP layers, and converting to the harmonized priority level is performed by an upper harmonization layer between the transport and application layers.