Timing transport method in a communication network

Abstract

There is provided a method in a packet based network system for node-to-node transmission of data packets comprising timing packets and non-timing packets, which is directed to a mechanism for providing a delay variation compensation in a timing system or timing sensitive signal transport in a packet based network without participating in the timing signaling of the timing packets or timing sensitive packets themselves. The method comprises associating the data packets with different levels of transmission priority P, P, assigning highest (or highest available) transmission priority Pto the timing packets, separately queuing the timing packets in different buffers, and providing first opportunity transmission of the timing packets regardless of transmission priority level of non-timing packets waiting to be transmitted. The advantage of the method is that timing-sensitive traffic thereby experiences reduced buffer delay variations.