Method and system for automatic determination of priority data streams on computer networks

In a computer network with a plurality of network devices, a method for using a data traffic signature, comprising the steps of:

• maintaining a data buffer including a plurality of data structures for a plurality of data packets that have arrived on a data stream between a source network device and a destination network device on a computer network during a current time interval;
• calculating a data traffic signature using the plurality of data structures for the data packets that have arrived during the current time interval;
• and
• associating the data traffic signature with the data stream between the source network device and the destination network device on the computer network.

In a computer network with a plurality of network devices, a method for determining an optimized data traffic signature, comprising the steps of:

• determining an optimized average packet spacing using a previous packet spacing and a new packet spacing in a data stream sent between a source network device and destination network device on a computer network;
• determining an optimized average packet size parameter using a previous packet size and a new packet size;
• determining an optimized average packet jitter parameter using a previous packet jitter and a new packet jitter;
• determining an optimized variation in packet size parameter using a previous variation in packet size and a new variation in packet size;
• and
• creating an optimized data traffic signature for the data stream using one or more of the optimized average packet spacing, optimized average packet size, optimized average packet jitter or optimized variation in packet size parameters.

In a computer network with a plurality of network devices, a method for using an optimized data traffic signature, comprising the steps of:

• maintaining a data buffer including a plurality of optimized data structures for a plurality of data packets that have arrived on a data stream between a source network device and a destination network device on a computer network during a current time interval;
• calculating an optimized data traffic signature using the plurality of optimized data structures for the data packets that have arrived during the current time interval;
• and
• associating the optimized data traffic signature with the data stream between the source network device and the destination network device on the computer network for the current time interval.

In a computer network with a plurality of network devices, a method for using data traffic signatures to adjust data traffic, comprising the steps of:

• calculating a plurality of data traffic signatures on a plurality of data streams between a source network device and a destination network device on a computer network;
• determining whether any of the calculated data traffic signature matches a known data traffic signature for a multimedia data stream, and if so,
• assigning a desired processing priority to data packets on a multimedia data stream associated with the calculated data signature;
• and
• sending and receiving data packets on a multimedia data stream assigned a highest priority before any data packets for any other of the plurality of data streams.

A system for providing automatic determination of quality-of-service streams, comprising in combination:

• a data traffic signature calculator, for calculating a data traffic signature from a plurality of data packets from a data stream;
• a plurality of data traffic signatures calculated from a plurality of data packets from known multimedia data streams for determining characteristics of a current data stream;
• a plurality of data structures for storing data packet information for data packets from a data stream;
• and
• a data buffer including a plurality of known data traffic signatures for known types of multimedia data streams for comparing to a current data stream, wherein a calculated data traffic signature is compared to the known data traffic signatures in the data buffer to determine whether a data stream for a calculated data traffic signature is a multimedia data stream.