Patent AT-E401756-T1: [Translated] CELLULAR ACCESS NETWORKS

In a mobile access network using packet transmission such as a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telephone System), a mobile station MS has a plurality of active soft handover connections (macrodiversity) to the network, each having a separate path from the mobile to a splitting/recombination node (RNC). Each path consists of a radio channel to a base station and a transport channel from the base station to the RNC. The quality of each radio channel is measured at the base station and a higher priority is given to connections having higher quality radio channels. Packets are marked according to the priority assigned to the channel via which they travel. Buffer management is effected in all nodes through which the packets travel to ensure that a lower packet loss ratio is experienced by higher priority packets.