Patent ID: 8594069

Claim:
A method for a target base station of a wireless communication system during handover of user equipment (UE) from a source base station to the target base station, comprising: determining a value for a timer based on at least one of load on a first interface between the source base station and the target base station, load on a second interface between the source base station and a gateway, load on a third interface between the target base station and the gateway, information for last forwarded packets for prior handovers of other UEs, and quality-of-service (QoS) profile of data being sent to the UE; starting the timer in the target base station after a data path from the gateway to the UE has been switched from the source base station to the target base station; receiving forwarded packets for the UE from the source base station; receiving new packets for the UE from the gateway; sending forwarded packets received prior to expiration of the timer to the UE before any new packets; and terminating the timer upon receiving an end marker packet from the source base station.