Patent ID: 7864783

Claim:
A system for conveying priority associated with a communication conveyed among a plurality of networks; the system comprising: (a) at least one first network originating said communication in a plurality of packets; each respective packet of said plurality of packets including at least two segments; a first segment of said at least two segments containing at least a portion of said communication in a plurality of information payload bits composed in a first encoding scheme; a second segment of said at least two segments containing overhead information relating to said respective packet in a plurality of overhead bits composed in a second encoding scheme; a predetermined number of said plurality of overhead bits being configured as priority-indicating bits to indicate said priority; and (b) at least one second network coupled with said at least one first network for receiving said communication; said at least one first network and said at least one second network cooperating to alter encoding of each respective said first segment of at least one selected packet-set of said plurality of packets to express said plurality of information payload bits in said selected packet-set in a third encoding scheme that is unreadable in said second network; said at least one second network employing said priority-indicating bits to ascertain said priority for handling said communication by said at least one second network; said second network preempting resources allocated to lower priority packet-sets as necessary to effect reserving resources for higher priority packet-sets; at least one of said at least one first network and said at least one second network employing predetermined estimating rules regarding said priority-indicating bits to estimate likelihood of interruption of delivery of a low-priority said communication by said at least one second network.