Method and communication system for signaling information for optimizing rate control schemes in wireless networks

A communication system for exchanging signaling information for optimizing a rate control scheme in a mobile Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) communication network, the system comprising:

• an external packet switched streaming sender for transmitting data packets over the network using Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to a mobile terminal employing TCP Friendly Rate Control (TFRC) as the rate control scheme with a sending rate which can be adapted using feedback information from the mobile terminal, wherein:
• the mobile terminal is adapted to exchange Packet Data Protocol (PDP) context information including a negotiable service parameter indicating the maximum or guaranteed bit rate for downlink with a gateway support node of the network,
• the mobile terminal is furthermore adapted to receive at its control plane the PDP context information and transmit the PDP context information to the packet switched streaming sender using a real time stream protocol, and
• the packet switched streaming sender is adapted to adjust the sending rate using the received PDP context information according to Xnext=min {max {min {2*X_recv}, s/R}, X_max}, where Xnext is the next sending rate, X is the current sending rate, X_recv is the receiving rate at the TFRC mobile terminal, s is the packet size, R is the round trip time and X_max is the maximum or guaranteed bit rate for downlink.