Sistema de comunicaciones, elemento de red y procedimiento para facilitar el encaminamiento de paquetes de datos

摘要

A system and method of facilitating data transmission from a first data network using a first data-carrying mechanism to a second data network using a second data- carrying mechanism, including: mapping a data packet from the first data network to the second data network by allocating first and second labels to the data packet; mapping a first portion of quality of service information relating to the first network data packet to a field in the first label; and mapping a second portion of the quality of service information for the first network data packet to a field in the second label. Preferably the first data-carrying mechanism is IP and the second data carrying mechanism is MPLS or Ethernet. The quality of service information from the first data network in both the first and second labels is usable for applying a corresponding quality of service by network elements of the second data network. Advantageously, where the first portion of quality of service information is 3 bits long, and the second portion of quality of service information is 3 bits long, this enables up to 64 quality of service classes to be applied in the second network.