Patent ID: 8085800

Claim:
A method of queuing data packets, said data packets comprising data packets of a first packet type and data packets of a second packet type, the method comprising: grouping received packets of said first and second packet types into an ordered series of groups, at least some of said groups comprising both packets of said first type and packets of said second type, and each group comprising at least one packet; maintaining a group counter having a value indicating the number of groups at the beginning of the series of groups comprising only packets of the second packet type; transmitting a packet; and changing the value of the group counter to indicate that there are no groups at the beginning of the series of groups comprising data packets only of the second packet type if a group at the beginning of the series of groups comprises a data packet of the first type; wherein a packet of the second packet type is available for transmission if but only if the group counter is indicative that the number of groups at the beginning of the series of groups comprising only packets of the second packet type is greater than zero.