Patent ID: 8422435

Claim:
For use in a telecommunications system comprising a base station node, a method of operating a downlink channel over an air interface between the base station node and a user equipment unit (UE), the method comprising: obtaining an indication of degradation of a radio link connection carried by the downlink channel from the base station node to the user equipment unit; and, in accordance with the indication, performing a modification of transmission priority for the radio link connection on the downlink channel relative to other radio link connections which share the downlink channel, the modification being performed on the basis of plural priority factors, at least one of the priority factors being a distance indication, the distance indication being an indication of distance of the user equipment unit (UE) involved in the radio link connection from the base station node; determining a nominal transmission priority value for the radio link connection using a first input and a second input, the first input being related to a time delay for a packet residing in a transmission buffer of the base station node and destined for use in the radio link connection, the second input being related to a channel quality index channel quality index (CQI); and modifying the nominal transmission priority value with a third input, the third input being related to the distance indication.