Patent ID: 8908684

Claim:
A method for selecting a transmission mode for transmitting payload data between a first communication device and a second communication device over a packet-oriented communication network, wherein a quality-of-service of the transmission is dependent on the respective transmission mode, the method comprising: transmitting a first list of transmission modes and a second list of transmission modes to a quality-of-service device that is not either of the first and second communication devices, the first list of transmission modes supported by the first communication device, and the second list of transmission modes supported by the second communication device, the second list generated independently of the first list; selecting at least one transmission mode from the first and second lists by the quality-of-service device based on available transmission resources of the communication network such that the quality of service dependent on the selected at least one transmission mode is guaranteed by the available transmission resources; transmitting the selected at least one transmission mode from the quality-of-service device to a data link control, the data link control not being one of the first and second communication devices, not being a component of either of the first and second communication devices, not being a component of the quality-of-service device, and not being the quality-of-service device; initiating a further selection of a transmission mode by the data link control, the further selection based on the selected at least one transmission mode transmitted to the data link control; and the data link control transmitting the further selected transmission mode to the quality-of-service device prior to a start of the transmitting of the payload data between the first and second communication devices using the transmission mode selected in the further selection, requesting, by the quality-of-service device, a bandwidth reservation in accordance with the further selected transmission mode; transmitting the payload data between the first and second communication devices using the transmission mode selected in the further selection; and wherein the at least one transmission mode selected by the quality-of-service device is supported by both the first and second communication devices, and wherein the further selection initiated by the data link control comprises the data link control performing the further selection of the transmission mode by communicating the further selection of the transmission mode by the data link control to the first and second communication devices such that the transmitting of the payload data between the first and second communication devices using the transmission mode selected in the further selection is performed without the data link control querying the first and second communication devices to make the further selection.