Method and system for automatic determination of priority data streams on computer networks

Abstract

A method and system for automatically determining priority data streams on a computer network. A data traffic signature is calculated for a data stream using one or more of an average packet spacing, average packet size, average packet jitter or variation in packet size parameters calculated for data packets in a data stream. An optimized data signature can also be calculated for a data stream using one or more of an optimized average packet spacing, optimized average packet size, optimized average packet jitter or optimized variation in packet size parameters. A calculated data traffic signature is used to determine whether the calculated data traffic signature matches a known data traffic signature for a known type of data stream. If a calculated data traffic signature matches a known data traffic signature for a known type of data stream, such as a multimedia data stream, resources are allocated on a network device to provide a desired processing priority to data packets in the data stream. Data packets in a higher priority data stream associated with a calculated data traffic signature are sent and received before any other data packets from other data streams with a lower processing priority. The desired processing priority may include a desired Quality-of-Service (“QoS”). The methods and system described herein provide a way to automatically determine a data stream type and to provide a desired processing priority including Quality-of-Service to multimedia data packets in a determined multimedia data stream. The multimedia data packets given priority can arrive with a lower latency and thus help eliminate audio/video and lip synchronization problems as well as reduce packet jitter.