Patent ID: 7693057

Claim:
A method comprising: determining a required bit rate (B SIO ) being required for an application of a certain service connection; determining a nominal bit rate (NBR) allocated to said service connection; measuring a momentary bit rate (MBR) of said service connection; calculating, with a processor, a priority information (I) depending on said required bit rate (B SIO ), said nominal bit rate (NBR), said momentary bit rate (MBR), and on a gain factor (C SIO ) indicating a gain over a ratio of said nominal bit rate (NBR) and said momentary bit rate (MBR), wherein said priority information (I) being calculated as a linear scale importance value being calculated as the product of said gain factor (C SIO ) and said nominal bit rate (NBR) divided by said required bit rate (B SIO ) when said momentary bit rate (MBR) is less than or equal to said required bit rate (B SIO ),and being calculated to zero when said momentary bit rate (MBR) exceeds said required bit rate (B SIO ); and marking data packets to be transmitted in a packet switched network with said priority information (I) for treating said packets in said network according to said priority information (I).