System and method for avoiding clipping in a communications system

1 . A method of eliminating or reducing clipping in a communication system comprising a transmitting device connected remotely to a receiving device where media data is sent in packets from said transmitting device to said receiving device comprising the steps of:

a) providing a buffer at said receiving device, or between said transmitting device and said receiving device;

b) detecting that the receiving device is unable to render a stream of media packets sent from said transmitting device;

c) storing media packets from said stream of media packets in said buffer; and

d) reducing the size of said buffer when said receiving device is able to render said stream until buffer is substantially empty.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said buffer is part of said receiving device.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein at least one of said transmitting device and said receiving device is a mobile telephone and/or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) workpoint.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said stream of media packets comprises multimedia data.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said reducing the size of said buffer further comprises the steps of:

d1) waiting until said stream of packets contains packets associated with silence or substantially little movement; and

d2) dropping said packets associated with silence or substantially little movement.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein said reducing the size of said buffer further comprises dropping a small number of packets at a time while said stream of packets contains packets associated with speech or motion.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the rate at which said small number of packets is dropped is adjustable according to preferences.

8 . A method of eliminating or reducing clipping in a communication system comprising a transmitting device connected remotely to a receiving device where media data is sent in packets from said transmitting device to said receiving device comprising the steps of:

a) providing a buffer at said transmitting device, or between said transmitting device and said receiving device;

b) detecting that the transmitting device is unable to send a stream of media packets to said receiving device;

c) storing media packets from said stream of media packets in said buffer; and

d) reducing the size of said buffer when said transmitting device is able to send a stream of packets to said receiving device until said buffer is substantially empty.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein said buffer is part of said transmitting device.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein at least one of said transmitting device and said receiving device is a mobile telephone.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein said stream of packets contains multimedia data.

12 . A network comprising:

a) a receiving device logically connected to a transmitting device via signaling data; and

b) at least one buffer at said receiving device or between said transmitting device and said receiving device, wherein said at least one buffer contains a group of packets of media data from said transmitting device that cannot be immediately rendered at said receiving device, and wherein the size of said at least one buffer is reduced after said receiving device is able to render said group of packets of media data, until said at least one buffer is substantially empty.

13 . The network of claim 12 , wherein at least one of said at least one buffer is also a jitter buffer.

14 . The network of claim 12 , wherein said media data is multimedia data.

15 . The network of claim 12 , wherein at least one of said transmitting device and said receiving device is a mobile telephone and/or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) workpoint.

16 . The network of claim 12 , wherein at least one of said at least one buffer is part of said receiving device.

17 . A network comprising:

a) a transmitting device logically connected to a receiving device via signaling data; and

b) at least one buffer at said transmitting device or between said transmitting device and said receiving device, wherein said at least one buffer contains a group of packets of media data from said transmitting device that cannot be immediately streamed to said receiving device, and wherein the size of said at least one buffer is reduced after a media data stream from said transmitting device to said receiving device is established, until said at least one buffer is substantially empty.

18 . The network of claim 17 , wherein said media data is multimedia data.

19 . The network of claim 17 , wherein at least one of said transmitting device and said receiving device is a mobile telephone.

20 . The network of claim 17 , wherein at least one of said at least one buffer is part of said transmitting device.