Patent ID: 7724664

Claim:
A method of operating a packet subnet, said method comprising: receiving one or more communication announcement packets indicative of the commencement of a packet communication through said subnet, said packet communication comprising a plurality of packets; responsive to receipt of said one or more communication announcement packets, storing a set of communication identifiers, each communication identifier enabling identification of packets belonging to one of said announced packet communications; responsive to the elapse of a period of time after the commencement of said communication, removing an identifier from said set of stored identifiers prior to the cessation of the associated communication; receiving packets belonging to communications associated with one of said set of stored identifiers, and packets belong to other communications not associated with any of said set of stored identifiers; on a threshold level of congestion being reached in said packet subnet: identifying the packets belonging to a communication associated with one of said set of stored identifiers; and forwarding packets belonging to the other communications not identified by any of said set of stored identifiers in preference to packets so identified.