Patent ID: 7701963

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of transferring data in a communication system, the computer including a processor and a storage medium, the method comprising: receiving, at a network access node, a plurality of registration requests from a radio access network (RAN) node, wherein each registration request identifies a corresponding mobile node, wherein receiving the plurality of registration requests further comprises receiving a respective routing key with each registration request, wherein each respective routing key is generated by the RAN node and comprises a first field and a second field, wherein the first field identifies the respective corresponding mobile node, wherein the second field is reserved for indicating a tunnel identifier; receiving a plurality of data packets, wherein each of the plurality of data packets is destined for a respective mobile node and corresponds to a respective data packet treatment; establishing, by the processor, a plurality of tunnels with the RAN node for each respective mobile node, wherein each of the plurality of tunnels corresponds to a respective data packet treatment, wherein a number of the plurality of tunnels is independent of a number of air-interface links between the RAN node and the respective mobile node, wherein the establishing further comprises enabling the RAN node to reorder respective data packets in different tunnels, preventing the RAN from reordering respective data packets having identical tunnel identifiers and preventing the RAN from dropping respective data packets associated with at least one tunnel; transmitting each of the plurality of data packets over a respective one of the plurality of tunnels according to the respective data packet treatment; and receiving a back-pressure message from the RAN node, wherein the back-pressure message corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of tunnels and specifies a Packet Session Identifier (PSI), Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP), and Micro-Tunnel Identifier (MTID) triplet, wherein if the MTID matches an identifier for the at least one tunnel in which the RAN is prevented from dropping respective data packets, then only the network access node can drop data packets corresponding to the at least one tunnel based on the back-pressure message.