System and method for selective protection switching

A transmitter, comprising:

• a classifier for detecting packets to be protected in transmission and packets not to be protected in transmission;
• a marking unit for identifying and marking the packets;
• a duplicator for duplicating the packets to be protected;
• a drop unit for dropping unprotected packets;
• and
• a modulation selector for applying a modulation scheme to a radio link, said modulation scheme being selected at least according to a status of propagation of packets on a radio link;
• wherein the transmitter is configured for transmitting a protected packet over the first radio link wherein the transmission occupies a first portion of available bandwidth of the first radio link, transmitting a duplicate of the protected packet over the second radio link wherein the transmission occupies a second portion of available bandwidth of the second radio link, and transmitting unprotected packets on at least part of a remainder of the available bandwidth of the first radio link and at least part of a remainder of the available bandwidth of the second radio link.

A receiver for receiving packets over radio communication links, comprising:

• a link estimation unit for estimating a status of a radio link and associating to a packet an indicator representing the status of the radio link;
• a demultiplexer for separating a multiplexed flow of packets into a protected flow and an unprotected flow;
• a selector unit for selecting a flow according to the indicator;
• and
• a duplicator for duplicating the protected flow and forwarding a first protected flow to a first flow aligner and latency compensation unit and a duplicate protected flow to a second flow aligner and latency compensation unit.