Soft packet dropping during digital audio packet-switched communications

1. A method of packetizing digital information for packet-switched communications, comprising:

placing, at a transmitting device with memory and a processor, a most significant bit of a digital voice sample into a variable-length most significant bit packet having a high transmission priority for transmission over a packet-switched network in which a node receives the packet and independently determines how to route the packet, and

placing, at the transmitting device, a least significant bit of the digital voice sample into a variable-length least significant bit packet having a low transmission priority for transmission over the packet-switched network,

wherein prioritization of packets as having a high transmission priority or low transmission priority is independent of content characteristics of digital voice samples with elements contained therein.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting the most significant bit packet and the least significant bit packet to a router that implements routing prioritization, the router dropping the least significant bit packet and forwarding the most significant bit packet.

3. The method of claim 2 ,

wherein the digital voice sample is substantially reassembled without the least significant bit of the least significant bit packet.

4. The method of claim 3 ,

wherein the least significant bit is represented by replacement bits to reassemble the digital voice sample.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting the most significant bit packet and the least significant bit packet to a router that implements routing prioritization, the router forwarding the least significant bit packet and the most significant bit packet.

6. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the transmitting device is a mobile device.

7. The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the priority of each of the most significant bit packet and the least significant bit packet is indicated by three priority bits.

8. A system that packetizes digital information for packet-switched communications, comprising:

a transmitting device with memory and a processor that places a most significant bit of a digital voice sample into a variable-length most significant bit packet having a high transmission priority for transmission over a packet-switched network in which a node receives the packet and independently determines how to route the packet, and that places a least significant bit of the digital voice sample into a variable-length least significant bit packet having a low transmission priority for transmission over the packet-switched network,

wherein prioritization of packets as having a high transmission priority or low transmission priority is independent of content characteristics of digital voice samples with elements contained therein.

9. The system of claim 8 ,

wherein the transmitting device further transmits the most significant bit packet to a router that implements routing prioritization, the router dropping the least significant bit packet and forwarding the most significant bit packet.

10. The system of claim 9 ,

wherein the digital voice sample is substantially reassembled without the least significant bit of the least significant bit packet.

11. The system of claim 10 ,

wherein the least significant bit is represented by replacement bits to reassemble the digital voice sample.

12. The system of claim 8 ,

wherein the transmitting device further transmits the most significant bit packet to a router that implements routing prioritization, the router forwarding the least significant bit packet and the most significant bit packet.

13. The system of claim 8 ,

wherein the priority of each of the most significant bit packet and the least significant bit packet is indicated by three priority bits.

14. The system of claim 8 ,

wherein the transmitting device comprises a mobile device.

15. The system of claim 14 ,

wherein the most significant bit is the sign bit and the three exponent bits, and the least significant bit is the four mantissa bits.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium that stores a computer program for packetizing digital information for packet-switched communications, the computer program, when executed by a processor, causing a computer to perform acts comprising:

placing, at a transmitting device with a memory and a processor, a most significant bit of a digital voice sample into a variable-length most significant bit packet having a high transmission priority for transmission over a network in which a node receives the packet and independently determines how to route the packet;

placing, at the transmitting device, a least significant bit of the digital voice sample into a variable-length least significant bit packet having a low transmission priority for transmission over the packet-switched network,

wherein prioritization of packets as having a high transmission priority or low transmission priority is independent of content characteristics of digital voice samples with elements contained therein.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 ,

wherein the digital voice sample is substantially reassembled without the least significant bit of the least significant bit packet.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 ,

wherein the least significant bit is represented by replacement bits to reassemble the digital voice sample.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 ,

wherein the priority of each of the most significant bit packet and the least significant bit packet is indicated by three priority bits.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 16 ,

wherein the transmitting device comprises a mobile device.