Patent ID: 7529276

Claim:
A network device for transmitting compressed video data onto a channel, the network device comprising: an input network interface designed or configured to receive multiple bitstreams, at least one of the multiple bitstreams having packets that include jitter and transport compressed video data; a buffer designed or configured to store the packets received by the input network interface, wherein the buffer includes a first portion configured or designed to be used to remove the jitter from the packets, and a second portion, wherein the first and second portions are variably sized according to the amount of jitter in the packets; a multiplexer designed or configured to schedule packets from the multiple bitstreams, scan packets in the second portion with a look ahead window, wherein the size of the look ahead window decreases with an increasing amount of jitter, and adjust allocation of bandwidth on the channel based on the buffer scan, an output network interface designed or configured to be in digital communication with the multiplexer and to output the packets from the bitstreams onto the channel.