For example, the congestion may occur between BBUs and PPUs. One potential challenge might become the many acknowledgement (ACK) and non-acknowledgement (NACK) messages that are communicated over the midhaul between the BBUs and PPUs. The present disclosure recognizes the fact that, in today's Long Term Evolution (LTE) evolved NodeB (eNB) deployment, the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) are co-located and any ACK and/or NACK signaling between the protocol layers is typically very fast. However, the split of the RLC into the BBU and the PDCP into the PPU in the 5G RAN architecture will most likely introduce latency. At the same time the new transport network (i.e., the midhaul) between the BBU and PPU may introduce uncontrolled characteristics, like latency capacity and packet dropping.

It is in view of the above considerations and others that the various embodiments disclosed herein have been made.

As will be appreciated, some existing solutions for congestion control may be inadequate, especially in the next generations (e.g., 5G or beyond) of telecommunication networks. This disclosure recognizes that there is a need for a solution that allows for improved congestion control.

Accordingly, it is a general object of the embodiments of the present invention to allow for improved congestion control. It would be advantageous if the risk for congestion is limited, e.g. reduced or minimized. It would be particularly advantageous to provide embodiments that allow for a suitable congestion control in a fifth or future generation telecommunications network. Furthermore, it would be advantageous if the solution is backwards compatible with earlier generation telecommunications networks, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE Advanced.