Patent ID: 7684324

Claim:
A method for prioritizing a packet received at a router in a network, the method comprising the steps of: a. determining whether the packet is delay-sensitive; b. if the packet is delay-sensitive, estimating a delay variation of the packet by steps comprising: i. determining an actual arrival time for the packet at the router; ii. extracting a sending timestamp from the packet; iii. determining an actual arrival time for a preceding packet at the router; iv. extracting a sending timestamp from the preceding packet; v. subtracting the sending timestamp of step (iv) from the sending timestamp of step (ii); vi. estimating an ideal arrival time for said packet by adding the result of step (v) to the actual arrival time of step (iii); and vii. estimating the delay variation of the packet by comparing the actual arrival time of step (i) with the ideal arrival time of step (vi); and c. if the packet is delay-sensitive, using the delay variation of the packet to prioritize the packet for transmission from the router.