Abstract: A technique maintains priority of packets transmitted over a heterogeneous network by a hybrid node coupled to the network. The hybrid node assigns each packet a transmission priority (TP) level as it traverses protocol layers of a communications stack of the node. An application programming interface extension provides a tagging mechanism for conveying the TP levels from higher protocol layers of the stack to lower layers. The TP levels are then converted to information that is "tagged" to the packets and these tagged packets are then apportioned among a plurality of communication sessions based on the TP level assigned to each packet. The tagged packets and their associated sessions preserve the priority and order of the packets across the heterogeneous network.

Abstract: A system and method for merging a plurality of sorted lists using multiple processors having access to a common memory in which N sorted lists which may exceed the capacity of the common memory are merged in a parallel environment. Sorted lists from a storage device are loaded into common memory and are divided into a number of tasks equal to the number of available processors. The records assigned to each task are separately sorted, and used to form a single sorted list. A multi-processing environment takes advantage of its organization during the creation of the tasks, as well as during the actual sorting of the tasks.