Patent ID: 7599307

Claim:
A method usable in a communication environment, the method comprising: defining a plurality of quality of experience (QoE) metrics indicative of a characteristic that affects quality in the communication environment; performing a negotiation between a client and a server to determine at least one of the plurality of QoE metrics to be used during a session between the client and the server, wherein said negotiation is performed prior to play of media to start said session; designating said determined at least one QoE metric as at least one accepted QoE metric, said performing the negotiation performed prior to play of said media to start said session including: identifying which of the plurality of QoE metrics is supported by either the server or the client, or both; determining a manner to deactivate said determined at least one QoE metric during the session; modifying a particular QoE metric and re-negotiating the modified particular QoE metric to determine if said modified particular QoE metric is supported for the session; and rejecting a proposed QoE metric, including said modified particular QoE metric, if said proposed QoE is not supported by either or both the server or client; collecting metric data for said at least one accepted QoE metric during the session; and communicating the collected metric data between the client and the server.