Patent ID: 8045454

Claim:
A method for relieving congestion in a plurality of multimedia data flows through a network, each multimedia flow containing a plurality of multimedia data packets, the method comprising: receiving multimedia data packets in the plurality of multimedia data flows at an egress interface, wherein each multimedia data packet is sorted into a prioritized queue selected from a plurality of prioritized queues based on priority information embedded within a packet header in the multimedia data packet, wherein the priority information embedded within the packet header describes a flow priority level of the multimedia data flow to which the packet belongs, and wherein each of the prioritized queues in the plurality of prioritized queues is associated with a respective priority level; determining that a congestion condition has been reached at the egress interface, when one of the plurality of prioritized queues containing at least two multimedia data flows is full; responsive to determining that the congestion condition has been reached, selecting at random one of the plurality of multimedia data flows having packets in the prioritized queue that is full; responsive to the selection: dropping all multimedia data packets subsequently received at the egress interface in the selected multimedia data flow; dropping all multimedia data packets subsequently received at the egress interface in any prioritized queues in the plurality of prioritized queues having a priority level that is lower than the priority level of the prioritized queue that is full.