Patent ID: 8300642

Claim:
A method comprising: associating at least one channel identifier with at least one of a plurality of priorities; associating the at least one of the plurality of priorities to each of a plurality of service data units; selecting the channel identifiers from a predetermined set of allowable channel identifier values, wherein selecting the channel identifiers is based on the at least one of the plurality of priorities associated with the plurality of service data units; selecting one of the service data units based on the associated priorities; forming at least one data packet, the data packet including data from the selected service data unit and being configured to be transmitted over a communication network, the at least one data packet having control data associated with the selected service data unit, the control data including a value representative of the at least one of the plurality of priorities associated with the selected service data unit, and a channel identifier value representative of a channel identifier associated with the at least one of the plurality of priorities; and transmitting the formed data packet over the communication network.