Internet protocol video quality of service

1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving a packet associated with an established data flow at an edge termination device;

identifying an acceptable latency value for the received packet at a stream processing module within the edge termination device, the acceptable latency value being based upon a buffer state of a recipient device associated with the data flow;

comparing the acceptable latency value to a measured latency value associated with the packet at the stream processing module;

scheduling and transmitting the packet from the edge termination device based upon comparing the acceptable latency value to the measured latency value associated with the packet, wherein the scheduling and transmitting are based upon consideration of acceptable latency values associated with a plurality of data flows including the established data flow.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:

associating the received packet with the established data flow.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the acceptable latency value comprises identifying a buffer size of the recipient device associated with the packet.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein identifying the acceptable latency value further comprises identifying a buffer usage associated with the recipient device.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the buffer size of the recipient device is identified by configuring a Max_DS_Latency parameter during setup of the data flow.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein the Max_DS_Latency parameter is set to a value corresponding to the backlog in a data buffer of the recipient device.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising converting the buffer size from bytes to a latency expressed in microseconds based on the configured data flow for a Max_Traffic_Rate parameter.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein the Max_DS_Latency parameter comprises:

8000000

*

Buffer_Size

bytes

Max_Traffic

⁢

_Rate

.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein the Max_DS_Latency parameter is configured automatically using Packet Cable Multi-Media.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 9 , wherein the Max_DS_Latency parameter is configured during a registration process with a cable modem termination system.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein identifying the acceptable latency value for a recipient comprises identifying timing information associated with the data flow by running a phase lock loop on a program clock reference associated with the data flow.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 , wherein the difference between an actual arrival time and a predicted arrival time comprises network jitter, and a cable modem termination system or edge-quadrature amplitude modulation device is operable to compensate for the network jitter by modifying timestamps on individual packets associated with the data flow.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein an originating device is used to identify a measured latency for the received packet.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising using stream information identifying when the received packet will be consumed associated with the data flow to identify a sensitivity of the recipient device to packet delay.

15. One or more non-transitory computer readable media operable to cause a processor, upon execution of the one or more computer readable media, to cause the processor to:

receive a packet associated with an established data flow;

identify an acceptable latency value for the received packet based upon state information for a recipient device associated with the data flow, the acceptable latency value comprising an amount of time by which the packet can be delayed without adversely affecting the data flow;

compare the acceptable latency value to a measured latency value associated with the packet;

schedule and transmit the packet based upon comparing the acceptable latency value to the measured latency value associated with the packet.

16. The one or more computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein the processor is operable to identify an acceptable latency value based upon identifying a buffer size of the recipient device, and to identify a buffer usage associated with the recipient device.

17. The one or more computer readable media of claim 16 , wherein the buffer size of the recipient device is identified by configuring a Max_DS_Latency parameter during setup of the data flow.

18. The one or more computer readable media of claim 17 , wherein the Max_DS_Latency parameter is set to a value corresponding to the backlog in a data buffer of the recipient device.

19. The one or more computer readable media of claim 18 , wherein the processor is further operable to convert the buffer size from bytes to a latency expressed in microseconds based on the configured data flow for a Max_Traffic_Rate parameter.

20. The one or more computer readable media of claim 15 , wherein identifying the acceptable latency value for a recipient comprises identifying timing information associated with the data flow by running a phase lock loop on a program clock reference associated with the data flow.

21. The one or more computer readable media of claim 20 , wherein the difference between an actual arrival time and a predicted arrival time comprises network jitter, and a cable modem termination system or edge-quadrature amplitude modulation device is operable to compensate for the network jitter by modifying timestamps on individual packets associated with the data flow.

22. The one or more computer readable media of claim 15 , further comprising using stream information identifying when the received packet will be consumed associated with the data flow to identify a sensitivity of the recipient device to packet delay.