Patent ID: 8873381

Claim:
A method of communication, comprising: maintaining, by a communication entity, at least three different sets of quality of service (QoS) class identifiers (QCIs) for a bearer, including a set of defined QCIs, a set of guaranteed bit rate (GBR) QCIs, and a set of non-GBR QCIs; receiving, by the communication entity, a message for establishing or modifying the bearer with the communication entity, the message including a QCI for said bearer, wherein a value of the QCI corresponds to specific delay and loss characteristics for said bearer; determining whether the received QCI is included in the set of defined QCIs and, when the received QCI is included in the set of defined QCIs, selecting from the set of defined QCIs a QCI for the bearer corresponding to the received QCI; when the received QCI is not included in the set of defined QCIs, determining whether the received QCI is associated with a guaranteed bit rate bearer; when the received QCI is associated with the guaranteed bit rate bearer, selecting from the set of GBR QCIs one of the GBR QCI for the bearer; and when the received QCI is not associated with the guaranteed bit rate bearer, selecting from the set of non-GBR QCIs one of the non-GBR QCI for the bearer.