Patent ID: 8339954

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving packets at a gateway in a communication network at a first quality of service (QoS) level; inspecting the packets at the gateway to detect a trigger for dynamic quality of service (QoS) changes based on an identity of an upstream content source; if a trigger is not detected in a packet, configuring the gateway to provide the first quality of service level without modifying packet headers; if a trigger is detected in a packet, configuring the gateway to redirect subsequent packets through an alternate packet flow and to modify packet headers of the subsequent packets to provide a second quality of service level associated with the upstream content source at a policy function in the communication network, where the second quality of service level is higher than the first quality of service level; such that packets not received from the upstream content source are assigned the first QoS level and packets received from the upstream content source are assigned the second QoS level.