Patent ID: 6876669

Claim:
A method for transmitting data over a channel, comprising: receiving a first datagram for transmission at a first priority; receiving a second datagram for transmission at a second priority, higher than the first priority, before the transmission of the first datagram is completed; responsive to receiving the second datagram, deciding to divide the first datagram into a plurality of fragments, including a first fragment and a last fragment; transmitting the fragments of the first datagram over the channel, beginning with the first fragment; and transmitting at least a fragment of the second datagram over the channel before transmitting the last fragment of the first datagram, wherein transmitting at least the fragment of the second datagram comprises interrupting transmission of a number of datagrams, including at least the first datagram, in order to transmit at least the fragment of the second datagram, and adding a field to the fragment indicating the number of datagrams whose transmission has been interrupted.