Systems and methods for optimizing system performance of capacity and spectrum constrained, multiple-access communication systems by selectively discarding packets are provided. The systems and methods provided herein can drive changes in the communication system using control responses. One such control responses includes the optimal discard (also referred to herein as “intelligent discard”) of network packets under capacity constrained conditions. Some embodiments inspect a video stream to determine priorities for various elements of the video stream. The elements may be discarding using the priorities. In various embodiments, the elements include frames, slices, macroblocks, and data partitions.