Patent ID: 8300653

Claim:
A method for communicating data, the method including: performing the following steps by at least one processing device: receiving a block of data to be transmitted to a destination node; prioritizing the block of data to be transmitted to the destination node by assigning a priority to the block of data based in part on a ranking of a first data source relative to a ranking of at least one second data source and a prioritization rule selected from a set of prioritization rules included in a dynamically configured profile, wherein the dynamically configured profile is used for throughput management functions comprising optimizing available bandwidth; after prioritizing the block of data to be transmitted to the destination node, setting an indicator in a header of the block of data, wherein the indicator indicates that reliable delivery of the block of data is desired, wherein the indicator is set based at least in part on a reliability rule selected from a set of reliability rules included in the dynamically configured profile that determine whether reliable delivery is desired for the block of data based on characteristics of the block of data, and wherein the indicator is set on a per-message basis; transmitting the block of data to the destination node; and retransmitting the block of data to the destination node when a predetermined time has elapsed and when an acknowledgement of delivery of the block of data has not been received from the destination node; wherein at least the prioritizing and setting steps occur at a transport layer of a protocol stack.