Patent ID: 8693334

Claim:
A method, comprising: identifying a first data type of a first payload of a first data packet to be transmitted as part of a flow, wherein the first data type is identified by evaluating a quality of service (QoS) field; setting an acknowledgement flag based on the first data type, the acknowledgement flag indicating that an acknowledgement is not required from a receiving device such that a network device avoids retransmitting a first outgoing frame when the acknowledgement is not received for the first outgoing frame; identifying a second data type of a payload of a second data packet to be transmitted as part of the flow, wherein the second data type is identified by evaluating the quality of service (QoS) field and the acknowledgement flag is not set; transmitting a second outgoing frame using first transmission characteristics; and retransmitting the second outgoing frame when the acknowledgement is not received using second transmission characteristics, wherein the second transmission characteristics are different than the first transmission characteristics.