Patent ID: 8706907

Claim:
A method for transferring a complete copy of media designated as time-sensitive over a network, comprising: transmitting media designated as time-sensitive from a sending client to a receiving client during a conversation that is selectively conducted in a real-time mode and a time-shifted mode, the media designated as time-sensitive when consumed in the real-time mode as the media is created and transmitted by the sending client; managing transmission of the time-sensitive media, when there is media loss between sending client to the receiving client, to: 1) transmit a reduced quality copy of the media designated as time-sensitive in order to enhance the ability for the receiving client to review the time-sensitive media in real-time; and 2) guaranteeing that a complete copy of the time-sensitive media of the conversation, as originally encoded when created, is eventually received at the receiving client for consumption in the time-shifted mode, the transmission management including: receiving receipt reports at the sending client from the receiving client, the receipt reports including a first priority request for any media designated as time-sensitive and noted as missing as a result of the media loss during transmission between the sending client and the receiving client; and retransmitting the identified missing media in response to the first priority request for retransmission, the retransmission occurring at a low priority when bandwidth on the network in excess of what is needed to transmit time-sensitive media becomes available so that the retransmission does not impede the transmission of media designated as time-sensitive; ascertaining at the receiving client when the received media designated as time-sensitive is a reduced bit rate representation of the media relative to a full bit rate representation of the media, where the full bit rate representation of the media is derived when the media was originally encoded; determining if media loss on the network between the sending client and the receiving client falls below a predetermined acceptable threshold when the reduced bit rate representation of the media is received; and generating at the receiving client a second priority request for the retransmission of the media corresponding to the reduced bit rate representation of the media when the media loss falls below the predetermined acceptable threshold, wherein the second priority request is of a higher priority than the first priority request.