Patent ID: 8638724

Claim:
A method of operating a wireless communication network to manage machine-to-machine communications, the method comprising: in a communication transceiver system, wirelessly receiving a data packet having a packet header and a packet payload, wherein the packet payload includes a machine-to-machine communication and wherein the packet header includes a machine-to-machine communication indicator representing that the machine-to-machine communication in the packet payload is originated and consumed by machines and not human operators; in a communication processing system, determining at least one wireless network parameter indicating a state of the wireless communication network; in the communication processing system, processing the machine-to-machine communication indicator and the wireless network parameter to determine whether to transfer or drop the data packet; and in the communication transceiver system, transferring the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines to transfer the data packet and not transferring the data packet over the wireless communication network if the communication processing system determines not to transfer the data packet.