Patent ID: 8891484

Claim:
A method, performed in a long term evolution (LTE) communications network, of facilitating a handover of a mobile communication device in the LTE communications network from a source node in the LTE communications network to a target node in the LTE communications network, the method comprising: receiving, in the target node, in the LTE communications network, at least one of Acknowledge Mode (AM) data and Unacknowledge Mode (UM) data forwarded from the source node via an X2 LTE interface, the data received via the X2 interface comprising downlink service data units (SDUs); receiving, in the target node, in the LTE communications network, at least one of the Acknowledge Mode (AM) data and the Unacknowledge Mode (UM) data, via an S1 LTE interface, the data received via the S1 interface comprising downlink SDUs; prioritizing the downlink SDUs in the target node, in the LTE communications network, based on the LTE interface from which the SDUs are received such that SDUs from the X2 interface are prioritized to be sent before sending SDUs from the S1 interface; sending, when said received data comprises the UM data, the prioritized SDUs of the UM data from the target node in the LTE communications network to the mobile communication device in the LTE communications network, in accordance with said prioritizing, after completion of the handover from the source node to the target node in the LTE communications network; determining, when said received data comprises said AM data, whether the downlink SDUs of said AM data have or have not been acknowledged by the mobile communication device; and retransmitting, when the downlink SDUs of said AM data are determined not to have been acknowledged by the mobile communication device, the prioritized SDUs of said AM data, from the target node to the mobile communication device, in accordance with said prioritizing.