Wireless terminal for transmitting packets of different types

A terminal comprising:

• a radio-frequency transmitter for transmitting packets on an uplink to a wireless cellular network;
• and
• processing apparatus comprising an upper protocol stack and a lower protocol stack coupled between the upper stack and the radio-frequency transmitter, the upper stack being arranged to process data according to one or more transport protocols and form the data into packets of a plurality of different types for transmission over a packet-based network, and the lower stack being arranged to receive said packets from the upper stack and process the packets for transmission via the wireless cellular network;
• wherein the lower stack comprises a plurality of packet queues each corresponding to a different respective priority level, and a packet decoder configured to decode a portion of each packet to determine its type and supply each packet in dependence on its type to a packet queue of a corresponding priority level;
• and
• wherein the lower stack further comprises a dequeuing mechanism configured to dequeue packets from said queues in dependence on the priority levels for transmission from the radio-frequency transmitter via the wireless cellular network to the packet-based network, wherein the dequeuing mechanism is configured, after a specified time period, to dequeue one or more oldest packets regardless of priority level.

A method comprising:

• in an upper protocol stack, processing data according to one or more transport protocols and forming the data into packets of a plurality of different types for transmission over a packet-based network;
• in a lower protocol stack, receiving said packets from the upper stack and processing the packets for transmission via a wireless cellular network;
• operating a radio-frequency transmitter to transmit said packets on an uplink to the wireless cellular network;
• wherein the method further comprises, in the lower stack, decoding a portion of each of said packets to determine its type, and supplying each packet in dependence on its type to a packet queue of a corresponding priority level;
• and
• dequeuing packets from said queues in dependence on the priority levels, for transmission from the radio-frequency transmitter via the wireless cellular network to the packet-based network, wherein the dequeuing mechanism is configured, after a specified time period, to dequeue one or more oldest packets regardless of priority level.

A lower protocol stack program product for use in conjunction with an upper protocol stack;

• the upper protocol stack being for processing data according to one or more transport protocols and forming the data into packets of a plurality of different types for transmission over a packet-based network;
• and the lower protocol stack program product comprising code embodied on a computer readable medium and being configured so as when executed on a processor to:
• receive said packets from the upper stack, and process the packets for transmission via a wireless cellular network;
• decode a portion of each of said packets to determine its type, and supply each packet in dependence on its type to a packet queue of a corresponding priority level;
• dequeue packets from said queues in dependence on the priority levels, for transmission from the radio-frequency transmitter via the wireless cellular network to the packet-based network, wherein the dequeuing mechanism is configured, after a specified time period, to dequeue one or more oldest packets regardless of priority level;
• and
• operate a radio-frequency transmitter to transmit the dequeued packets on an uplink to the wireless cellular network.