Quality of service, battery lifetime, and latency in wireless communication devices

A method for processing packets in a wireless communications device, comprising:

• receiving a first IP packet;
• determining whether or not the first IP packet contains a first audio frame;
• if the first IP packet does not contain the first audio frame, forwarding the first IP packet to an application processor (AP) of the wireless communications device;
• if the first IP packet contains the first audio frame, extracting the first audio frame from the first IP packet and forwarding the first audio frame to an audio processor of the wireless communications device;
• receiving a second audio frame from the audio processor;
• encapsulating the second audio frame in a first transport protocol packet, including inserting a predefined transport protocol port number;
• encapsulating the first transport protocol packet in a second IP packet, including inserting a predetermined destination IP address;
• and
• forwarding the second IP packet to a transmitter module of the wireless communications device.

A wireless communications device, comprising:

• an application processor (AP);
• and
• a processor, located outside of the AP, configured to implement an audio sniffer module,
• wherein the audio sniffer module is configured to receive a Layer 2 (L2) packet and to determine whether or not the L2 packet contains an audio frame by inspecting a radio bearer of the L2 packet, the audio sniffer module further configured, if the L2 packet does not contain the audio frame, to forward the L2 packet to the AP, and, if the L2 packet contains the audio frame, to extract the audio frame from the L2 packet and to forward the audio frame to an audio processor of the wireless communications device.