Patent ID: 7738390

Claim:
A method of reporting plural quality metrics for packet switched streaming via a network between a server and a client, the method comprising the steps of; negotiating between the server and the client which quality metric or quality metrics of said plural quality metrics is/are to be reported utilizing a reliable transport mechanism and which quality metric or quality metrics of said plural quality metrics is/are to be reported utilizing an unreliable transport mechanism; transporting content data from the server to the client using a real time streaming protocol; and reporting the plural quality metrics, which are indicative of the quality with which the data stream has been delivered to the client, from the client to the server using the unreliable transport mechanism and the reliable transport mechanism in accordance with the result of the negotiation, wherein: the quality metric reported using the reliable transport mechanism comprises the length of time the client spent buffering, and the quality metric reported using the unreliable transport mechanism comprises a degree of packet reordering.