Patent ID: 8023490

Claim:
A method for communicating data packets in a radio communication system, comprising: receiving a first data packet at a second radio station via a radio interface, wherein the first data packet is part of a first data stream having a first priority, and wherein the first data stream is transmitted from a first radio station; requesting a retransmission of the first data packet by the second radio station if the first data packet is not received correctly, after requesting retransmission of the first data packet, receiving at the second radio station a second data packet of a second, higher-priority data stream from the first radio station, wherein the second data packet is transmitted by the first radio station instead of the requested retransmission of the first data packet; and at some time after receiving the second data packet from the first radio station, the second radio station receiving the first data packet retransmitted by the first radio station; wherein each of the first and second data packets is provided with a priority and/or quality-of-service indicator; wherein the retransmission of an incorrectly received data packet is performed according to an ARQ-based process; and wherein the ARQ-based process is terminated upon expiration of a time interval.