Abstract: A method and message router that breaks up files to be transferred over a network connection within a specified deadline into fixed-sized pieces. Each piece contains enough redundant information so that a subset (but not all) of the pieces will be sufficient to construct the file at the destination. The method and router determine optimal values for the number of pieces the file should be split into and the subset of pieces required to reconstruct the full contents of the file in order to maximize the probability that the file can be reconstructed at the destination by the specified deadline. The method and router provide an expected QoS guarantee by using redundancy with a deadline rather than reservations.