Patent ID: 8051287

Claim:
A method comprising: establishing, based at least in part on cryptographic information in a pre-defined portion of a handshake network communication, a communication session to communicate a media stream, wherein the pre-defined portion of the handshake network communication is reserved for random data; receiving through the communication session, as part of the media stream, values of parameters relating to a sub media stream, included in a first header portion of a first real-time, priority-based network communication; storing the values of the parameters; obtaining through the communication session, as part of the media stream, state information included in a control portion of a second real-time, priority-based network communication and a data payload included in the second network communication; identifying, from the state information, a purpose of the second network communication in relation to the media stream, and whether a second header portion of the second network communication includes one or more new values corresponding to one or more of the parameters; updating, when the second header portion includes the one or more new values, one or more of the stored values based at least in part on the one or more new values; and processing the data payload based at least in part on the identified purpose and the stored values of the parameters.