Patent ID: 7400577

Claim:
A method of controlling congestion among a plurality of nodes divided into a plurality of distribution trees within a computer network, the method comprising: assigning a node in the computer network to each of the plurality of distribution trees; prioritizing a data stream into a plurality of layers of descriptions from a most important layer to a least important layer; distributing the descriptions in the layers across the plurality of distribution trees; detecting congestion at the node in the plurality of distribution trees; determining whether the congestion is at an incoming link of the node if the congestion is on an input side of the node; determining whether the congestion is at an outgoing link of the node if the congestion is on an output side of the node; shedding at least one parent node that is sending one or more descriptions in a least important layer among current layers being received by the node if the congestion is at the incoming link of the node; and shedding at least one child node that is receiving one or more descriptions in a least important layer among current layers being sent by the node if the congestion is at the outgoing link of the node.