SOFT PACKET DROPPING DURING DIGITAL AUDIO PACKET-SWITCHED COMMUNICATIONS

摘要

A method of packetizing digital audio information for packet-switched communications includes separating a digital audio sample into at least one most significant bit and at least one least significant bit. The at least one most significant bit of the digital audio sample is placed into a variable-length most significant bit packet having a high transmission priority for transmission over a packet-switched network in which at least one node receives the packet and independently determines how to route the packet. The at least one least significant bit of the digital audio sample is placed into a variable-length least significant bit packet having a low transmission priority for transmission over the packet-switched network. Prioritization of packets as having a high transmission priority or low transmission priority is independent of speech characteristics of digital audio samples with elements contained therein.