Patent ID: 7710976

Claim:
In a network router having a queue, a packet prioritization method based on delivery time expectation, the method consisting of: receiving a packet for routing, wherein the packet is prioritized based on respective delivery requirements and relative distance to the packet's destination, and wherein the packet has an Internet Protocol header; estimating a TimeToDestination for the packet, the estimating performed by an Internet Control Message Protocol; reading a TimeToDeliver field from the Internet Protocol Header of the packet to extract data on when the packet needs to be at the destination; determining a MaxQueueDelay for the packet, the MaxQueueDelay calculated by subtracting the TimeToDeliver from the TimeToDestination; in response to the MaxQueueDelay of the packet being longer than the packet would take in a current queue length, based on the packet priority, passing a lower priority packet if the lower priority packet has a lower MaxQueueDelay; and decrementing the TimeToDeliver by an amount of time the network router has had the packet in the queue before passing the packet to a next router, thereby communicating to the next router how much time is left before the packet must be delivered.