Patent ID: 8565216

Claim:
A method of operating an access terminal, the method comprising: operating a first application to generate a first data packet including information; selecting, out of a plurality of first radio link protocol (RLP) modules, a first RLP module associated with the first application, wherein the plurality of first RLP modules support different QoS streams; operating the selected first RLP module associated with the first application to generate, from the first data packet, a first RLP packet; making a routing decision used to control routing of said first RLP packet based on whether the first application is an application corresponding to a serving access node assembly or a remote access node assembly; if said first application corresponds to the remote access node assembly, operating an inter-route tunneling protocol (IRTP) module to generate from said first RLP packet an IRTP packet comprising an IRTP header identifying the remote access node assembly; selecting, out of a plurality of second RLP modules, a second RLP module associated with the IRTP module, wherein the plurality of second RLP modules support different QoS streams; operating the selected second RLP module to generate, from the IRTP packet, a second RLP packet; operating a stream protocol module to generate, from the second RLP packet, a stream protocol packet comprising a stream protocol header identifying that the second RLP packet is communicated from the second RLP module associated with the IRTP module and not from the first RLP module associated with said first application; and communicating the stream protocol packet to the serving access node assembly.