Patent ID: 7706384

Claim:
A method of transmitting between a sender and a receiver, a data stream comprising a plurality of data units in a transmission buffer at the sender, wherein the plurality of data units comprises a first data unit at the front of the transmission buffer and other data units following the first data unit, the method comprising: applying, by a processing device, a set of evaluation patterns based on at least one pattern-selection rule, wherein the set of evaluation patterns comprises one or more scheduling patterns with each scheduling pattern comprising a plurality of scheduling decisions, each decision associated with a data unit from the plurality of data units in the transmission buffer, and wherein each scheduling decision indicates whether the associated data unit is evaluated for transmission or dropping; calculating a distortion increase value for each scheduling pattern from the set of evaluation patterns; determining a target scheduling pattern based on a least calculated distortion value among the calculated distortion increase values from each scheduling pattern from the set of evaluation patterns; and processing the first data unit in the transmission buffer for transmission or dropping based on the decision associated with the first data unit from the determined target scheduling pattern.