Preservation of priority traffic in communications systems

A device, that includes a processor, in a communications network, said device located in an operator network between a subscriber and a packet-switched network, said device capable of receiving upstream packets from said operator network for transmission to said packet-switched network and receiving downstream packets from said packet-switched network for transmission to said operator network, that receives a received first upstream packet from a local sender in said local network,

• the device configured to selectively use address contents included within the received first upstream packet to identify a subsequently received first downstream packet from a different sender than said local sender based upon said address contents,
• where said address contents includes a plurality of (i) source IP address (SIP) field for IPv4, (ii) a destination IP (DIP) address field for IPv4, (iii) a source port (SPORT) field, (iv) a destination port (DPORT) field, (v) source IP address (SIP) field for IPv6, and (vi) a destination IP (DIP) address field for IPv6,
• where said subsequently received first downstream packet was received in response to said received first upstream packet being provided to said different sender,
• said device configured in response to receiving said received first upstream packet storing at least a portion of said address contents and quality of service data associated with said received first upstream packet, and further generating an upstream flow identifier (ID) associated with subsequently received upstream packets from said local sender,
• said device configured in response to receiving said subsequently received first downstream packet from said different sender to identify said subsequently received first downstream packet based upon comparing address contents included within said subsequently received first downstream packet with said stored address contents from said received first upstream packet and to write said quality of service data corresponding to the received first upstream packet to the subsequently received first downstream packet from said different sender,
• said device in response to receiving said subsequently received first downstream packet generating a flow identifier (ID) associated with different subsequently received downstream packets from said different sender sent in response to subsequent upstream packets from said local sender,
• said device configured based upon identifying said downstream flow identifier (ID) in a subsequent downstream packet of said different subsequently received downstream packets to write said quality of service data corresponding to the received first upstream packet to said subsequent downstream packet from said different sender, wherein said identifying said downstream flow identifier (ID) is performed without comparing said downstream address content from said subsequent downstream packet with said stored address contents.