Patent ID: 8594043

Claim:
A method at a source base station node for forwarding data packets during handover in a packet-switched wireless communications system, the method comprising: determining that handover of at least one radio bearer for a served user terminal to a target base station node is imminent; classifying a plurality of data packets received at the source base station node for transmission to the served user terminal into two or more data flow classifications according to a transmission status for each data packet, or the transmission status for each data packet and a service requirement for each data packet; and prior to the handover, selectively forwarding one or more of the data packets directly to the target base station node based on the data flow classification for each data packet; wherein classifying a plurality of data packets comprises evaluating a radio link control (RLC) status to determine a transmission status for each data packet, and wherein selectively forwarding one or more of the data packets to the target base station node based on the data flow classification for each data packet comprises forwarding data packets having a transmission status of unacknowledged and not forwarding data packets having a transmission status of acknowledged.