Nokia Corporation

Nokia Technologies Oy

Tamas Major

Mika Maurits Aalto

A method and apparatus of communicating data between a cell based network and a packet based network. Received segments of data units are formed into new data segments which are transmitted irrespective of whether a complete data unit has been received. The received segments may be stored, used to form cells and/or transport packets, and transmitted to the cell based network or the packet based network. Also, conditions may be detected, such as timer expiration or a maximum reception capacity achieved, before the segments are used to form the cells and/or transport packets. Forming transport packets may comprise including segments belonging to a specific data unit in a transport packet and/or adding an indication of a specific data unit to which a segment belongs. These operations may be performed by a base station, an interworking unit, or a radio network controller.

Interworking between cell and packet based networks

Apparatus, and an associated method, facilitates communication of data frames between elemental devices of a network element, such as an IP (Internet Protocol) base transceiver station of a radio communication system which includes a multi-port interface converter and a router device connected by way of an Ethernet connection. Data applied to a port of the interface converter is formatted into a data frame which selectably includes a Q Tag Prefix populated with a VID (Virtual LAN Identifier) defined in the IEEE 802.1 Q standard. If the data to be communicated by the multi-port interface converter is originated at the converter, the data is formatted into a data frame, but the prefix structure is not included, and therefore the frame is not populated with the VID. When the data frame is received at the router device, detection is made as to whether the data frame includes a prefix structure. Routing of the data of the data frame is made responsive to whether the prefix structure is formed of a VID contained in the data frame.

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Düsseldorf, Germany

Tamas Major