Question

I would like to be able to prioritize the outgoing data/messages from a WCF service.

Here’s the basic scenario:

1. Client requests from server a data stream. The data stream is live, large, and potentially unending (equipment monitoring data). We’ll call this HighPriorityDataStream.
2. Client requests additional data. We’ll call this LowPriorityData.

The bandwidth is limited (think dial-up modem or satellite). It is very important that the current HigPriorityDataStream not be interrupted or delayed when a request for LowPriorityData is made.

I have a sockets-based legacy system already where this is accomplished by manually controlling the order that data is placed into the socket buffer. High-priority data is placed in the buffer, and if there’s room left over, lower priority data is added to fill the rest of the buffer.

I’m trying to reengineer this process with WCF… I don’t know of any out-of-the box solutions and am thinking I may need to write a custom channel behavior, but I’d like to pick the brains of the community before I go that route 🙂