Method and apparatus for improved multi-carrier communication

A method for improved multi-carrier communication, the method comprising:

• transmitting, by a radio access network (RAN) via multiple carriers, packet data to a user element (UE) using a protocol stack, the protocol stack including a radio link control (RLC) layer, the RLC layer being split into an upper RLC processing layer and multiple lower RLC processing layers, each of the multiple carriers being associated with the upper RLC processing layer and a lower RLC processing layer from among the multiple lower RLC processing layers;
• supporting, by the upper RLC processing layer, packet data transmission via the multiple carriers;
• and
• supporting, by each of the multiple lower RLC processing layers, packet data transmission via at least one of the multiple carriers, such that packet data transmission via each of the multiple carriers is supported by the upper RLC processing layer and a lower RLC processing layer from among the multiple lower RLC processing layers.