Intelligent video frame dropping for improved digital video flow control over a crowded wireless network

A wireless communication device comprising:

• a wireless communication circuit configured to transmit and receive data packets over a wireless network;
• and
• a video input channel configured to receive an ordered sequence of incoming video frames generated by a video encoder;
• one or more processors configured to:
• arrange a plurality of the incoming video frames in an ordered sequence of outgoing video frames in a transmission queue to be transmitted as data packets by the wireless communication circuit;
• and
• when network congestion is detected, compare a relative contextual importance level of an incoming frame received from the video input channel relative to at least one frame in the transmission queue, and
• drop or omit the compared frame from the transmission queue that is determined to have the lower relative contextual importance level to transmit data packets of the frames in the transmission queue without the dropped or omitted frames.