USER PRIORITISATION OF COMMUNICATIONS TRAFFIC

摘要

The present invention relates to communications associated with different user applications such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) voice calls and File Downloads, and the prioritisation (quality of service or QoS) of data relating to those applications through a network such as the Internet. The present invention provides a network node (122) for receiving and transmitting packet-based data (150) across a network (120), the node comprising an input (310) for receiving a data packet (150), means for determining a network priority parameter (X, 260) and a user defined priority index (Y, 265) from the data packet, and means for prioritising (320, 330, 340) the data packet for transmission (350) dependent on the network priority parameter (X) or the user defined priority index (Y), and arranged wherein the data packet is prioritised (400, 530) dependent on the user defined priority index in response to determining (405) a user defined priority index from the data packet.