System and method for selective packet discard for the transport of multiple transportation streams of streaming media in packet-based networks

An apparatus for reducing the bandwidth of an MPEG transport stream during transmission over a packet-switched network, said apparatus comprising:

• means for identifying characteristics of a plurality of media fragments disposed within each of a plurality of packets of a transport stream;
• means for aggregating the characteristics into a summary value for each of the plurality of packets;
• means for correlating the summary value to a priority weighting identifiable by a network element;
• and
• means for marking each of the plurality of packets with the priority weighting, wherein marked packets are each configured for being selectively dropped by one or more network elements in accordance with their priority weightings to reduce the bandwidth of the transport stream.

An article of manufacture for reducing the bandwidth of MPEG transport streams during transmission over a packet-switched network, said article of manufacture comprising:

• a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein for:
• identifying characteristics of a plurality of media fragments disposed within each of a plurality of packets of a transport stream;
• aggregating the characteristics into a summary value for each of the plurality of packets;
• correlating the summary value to a priority weighting identifiable by a network element;
• and
• marking each of the plurality of packets with the priority weighting, wherein the packets are each configured for being selectively dropped by one or more network elements in accordance with their priority weightings to reduce the bandwidth of the transport stream.