Patent ID: 8737219

Claim:
A method of streaming data, said method comprising: accessing media data comprising a plurality of data packets; accessing first information that quantifies a characteristic of a data packet in said plurality of data packets, wherein said first information is selected from the group consisting of; information identifying a beginning and end of said data packet's data; header information for said data packet; information identifying a length of said data packet; information identifying a transmission time of said data packet; information identifying nominal presentation time for said data packet; information quantifying for said data packet an amount of distortion predicted to occur if said data packet is not sent or received; coding dependencies between said data packets; information identifying for said data packet how many data packets are dependent on said data packet; information identifying which of said data packets provide error resiliency; information identifying which of said data packets provide redundancy; and information identifying a deadline for delivering said data packet; using said first information to determine an order for sending said data packets in a network; using a model to predict an effect of a transmission schedule for said plurality of data packets on a selected, quantifiable parameter; accessing second information that characterizes network performance; and using said information with said first information to determine said order for sending said data packets, wherein said second information is selected from the group consisting of: bandwidth available along a path in said network; bottleneck link capacity along said path; data packet delivery rate; data packet loss rate; data packet received pattern; data packet loss pattern; information identifying which of said data packets were received at a node along said path; information identifying which of said data packets did not arrive at a node along said path: information quantifying time needed to traverse said path; and information quantifying delays associated with said path.