Patent ID: 8000238

Claim:
An apparatus for communicating data, comprising: a cell site element associated with a base transceiver station and operable to: transmit a plurality of T1/E1 packets associated with a communications flow to a second cell site element, the T1/E1 packets including a plurality of subrates each corresponding to a priority; detect a congestion condition according to a congestion indicator, the congestion indicator indicating a measurement of a transmit buffer of the second cell site element falls below a level; continue to increment its congestion onset counter upon receiving a set congestion indicator from the second cell site element and to decrement its congestion onset counter upon receiving a clear congestion indicator from the second cell site element; and while the congestion condition exists, drop one or more individual subrates from subsequent T1/E1 packets according to the priority and transmit a portion of each subsequent T1/E1 packet comprising the remaining subrates.