Patent ID: 6982981

Claim:
A method for configuring a network termination unit for asynchronous packet ATM (Asynchronous Transfer Mode) transmission of data, said method comprising the steps of: dividing the data into data cells; assembling the data cells into packets; transmitting the packets either at a constant data rate CBR or at a non-constant data rate UBR, wherein the data cells of packets are received and sent over the network termination unit which represents an interface between a transmission line and a data end device; determining the number of the data cells in each sent or received data packet in the network termination unit, and it is determined therefrom whether an ATM connection with constant CBR or non-constant UBR data rate is present, the data packets of a CBR connection being processed with a higher priority then the data packets of the UBR connection; determining a class of data connection, wherein adaptation layers with different packet lengths are defined for the transmission of the data packets, wherein, on determination of a data packet which contains more than a predefined number of cells, said predefined number being at least two, a UBR packet is detected, and in all other cases a CBR data packet is detected, and the ATM connection is correspondingly classified as a UBR or a CBR connection.