Patent ID: 7729334

Claim:
A method of processing data packets for a radio communications system employing a protocol stack with protocol layers therein, the method comprising: receiving, by a radio link control (RLC) layer, data packets from a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, each data packet having priority information related thereto generated by and sent from the PDCP layer, wherein the priority information indicates whether the corresponding data packet includes a full header or a compressed header, wherein a data packet including a full header has higher priority than a data packet including a compressed header; processing, by the RLC layer, the received data packets by using the priority information; and transferring, by the RLC layer, the processed data packets to a first lower layer according to the priority information, wherein the data packets include protocol data units (PDUs) generated by way of the PDCP layer receiving service data units (SDUs) from an upper layer, performing header compression thereto to generate protocol data units (PDUs), and transferring to the RLC each generated protocol data unit (PDU) together with its priority information, wherein the transferring is performed by: transmitting the data packets repetitively and randomly according to their priorities, transmitting the data packets using respectively different radio channels according to their priorities, transmitting the data packets using respectively different radio transmission techniques for each radio channel according to their priorities, and transmitting the data packets via respectively different logical channels such that each logical channel is used to transfer data packets of a certain priority, wherein a total number of logical channels equals a total number of different priorities.