Patent ID: 7257121

Claim:
A method for translating at least one ATM quality of service (QoS) parameter related to an ATM transmission protocol from said ATM transmission protocol to a MPLS transmission protocol for an ATM cell being sent on a connection from an ATM communication network utilizing said ATM transmission protocol to a MPLS communication network utilizing said MPLS transmission protocol, said method comprising: mapping said at least one ATM QoS parameter to a MPLS class of service value for said connection; mapping said MPLS class of service value and a drop precedence value of said ATM cell to an experimental field value for indicating a MPLS quality of service provisioning; converting said ATM cell to a MPLS frame; and, incorporating said experimental field value into said MPLS frame for transmission through the MPLS network; wherein: said at least one ATM QoS parameter includes at least one of an ATM service category, a cell loss ratio, and a cell delay variation; said experimental field value indicates drop precedence for said MPLS frame in addition to said MPLS class of service value; and, said MPLS class of service value is one of a number of MPLS class of service values, said drop precedence value is one of first and second drop precedence values, said experimental field value is one of a number of experimental field values, and each of said MPLS class of service values is assigned first and second experimental field values selected from said number of experimental field values, said first and second experimental field values being associated with said first and second drop precedence values, respectively.