Patent ID: 7860108

Claim:
A method of transferring input data packets from an upper layer of a stack of communication protocol layers to a lower layer supporting variable sized packets in a communications system, said method comprising: receiving, at a transmitting device, one input data packet from the upper layer; segmenting, at the transmitting device, said input data packet into several effective data parts to form respective data segments; selecting, at the transmitting device, a size of each one of said data segments from a list comprising a given number n of predetermined segment size values; adding, at the transmitting device, ineffective data to each one of said data segments when required to reach said selected segment size value, wherein the selecting of one of said segment size values from said list is performed according to a selection algorithm which minimizes overall ineffective data and/or overall signaling information and also which selects a greatest segment size value that minimizes the ineffective data in the data segment; adding, at the transmitting device, associated signaling information to each of said respective data segments so as to generate respective output data packets; and delivering, at the transmitting device, said output data packets to the lower layer.