Streaming media using erasable packets within internet queues

1. A router circuit for handling incoming packets of streaming media including packets that are encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments and packets that are encoded without said progressively priority-ranked segmentation, comprising:

a processor configured to receives quality of service data representing condition of network congestion; and

said processor programmed to test an incoming packet in the streaming media to determine whether it is encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments;

said processor further programmed to reduce network congestion when the received quality of service data indicates presence of network congestion by:

(a) selectively and progressively erasing segments within the incoming packet beginning with a lowest-ranked priority segment if the incoming packet is determined to be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments; and

(b) dropping the entire incoming packet if the incoming packet is determined not to be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.

2. The router circuit of claim 1 wherein the processor maps selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of a sum of selectively erased segments and mapping those selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

3. The router circuit of claim 1 wherein the processor maps selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of an accumulated sum of selectively erased segments across plural frames and mapping that accumulated sum of selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the accumulated sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

4. The router circuit of claim 1 wherein the processor is programmed to store a plurality of incoming packets in a queue, flag select packets from the plurality of incoming packets, construct a list of the select packets in memory and selectively and progressively erasing segments across the select packets, where the select packets are encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.

5. A streaming media encoding and routing system comprising:

an encoder circuit that constructs a streaming media sequence as a plurality of sequential frames, each frame comprising a plurality of segments;

the encoder circuit that is programmed to place media information into the plurality of segments of each frame according to a predefined priority and further programmed to order the sequence of said segments within each frame such that the segments are progressively priority-ranked from high priority to low priority;

a processor configured to receive quality of service data representing condition of network congestion; and

said processor programmed to test an incoming packet in the streaming media to determine whether it is encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments;

said processor further programmed to reduce network congestion when the received quality of service data indicates presence of network congestion by:

(a) selectively and progressively erasing segments within the incoming packet beginning with a lowest-ranked priority segment if the incoming packet is determined to be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments; and

(b) dropping the entire incoming packet if the incoming packet is determined not be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.

6. The system of claim 5 wherein the processor maps selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of a sum of selectively erased segments and mapping those selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

7. The system of claim 5 wherein the processor maps selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of an accumulated sum of selectively erased segments across plural frames and mapping that accumulated sum of selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the accumulated sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

8. The system of claim 5 wherein the processor is programmed to store a plurality of incoming packets in a queue flag select packets from the plurality of incoming packets, construct a list of the select packets in memory and selectively and progressively erasing segments across the select packets, where the select packets are encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.

9. A method of reducing congestion within a streaming media network comprising:

receiving a streaming media sequence as a plurality of incoming packets, wherein at least a portion of the packets are encoded such that in each packet a plurality of segments that contain media data have been progressively priority-ranked from high priority to low priority;

receiving a quality of service data indicative of condition of network congestion;

testing an incoming packet in the streaming media to determine whether it is encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments; and

using a processor to reduce network congestion when the received quality of service data indicates presence of network congestion by:

(a) selectively and progressively erasing segments within the incoming packet beginning with a lowest-ranked priority segment if the incoming packet is determined to be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments; and

(b) dropping the entire incoming packet if the incoming packet is determined not to be encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising using the processor to map selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of a sum of selectively erased segments and mapping those selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising using the processor to map selectively erased segments within a given packet to a dropped packet equivalent by maintaining a record of an accumulated sum of selectively erased segments across plural frames and mapping that accumulated sum of selectively erased segments as being equivalent to a dropped packet when the accumulated sum of the selectively erased segments is greater than an average packet size.

12. The method of claim 9 further comprising using the processor to store a plurality of incoming packets in a queue, flag select packets from the plurality of incoming packets, construct a list of the select packets in memory and selectively and progressively erasing segments across the select packets, where the select packets are encoded as collections of progressively priority-ranked segments.