Patent ID: 7836172

Claim:
A computer executable method of selectively modifying a message delivery requirement of a datagram message at an intermediary network node between an origin and a destination, said node unaware of said message delivery requirement, said method comprising instructions executable by a processor of the node, said instructions comprising: receiving a datagram message at the node; estimating the message delivery requirement for the received message based on available capabilities/resources used during a previous hop, said estimated message delivery requirement defining how to transmit the received message; determining a downgrading intent for the received message, said downgrading intent attached to the datagram message by the origin and different from the message delivery requirement, said downgrading intent indicating that the estimated message delivery requirement can be bypassed by the node; selectively ignoring the estimated message delivery requirement of the received message based on the determined downgrading intent; and thereafter transmitting the received message via a network protocol according to at least one of the message delivery requirement and the determined downgrading intent.