A method and a transceiver for selecting a current transmission mode in a data packet oriented communication system involves measuring a current radio link quality for the radio link; estimating on the lower layer a first status value corresponding to a state of the automatic request buffer on the higher layer; determining on said lower layer a second status value corresponding to a state of the automatic request buffer on said lower layer; calculating for said lower layer a target transmission rate based on the first and the second status values; identifying from the set of the available transmission modes a subset of transmission modes, each providing a maximum transmission of data packets for radio link quality values lower than the current radio link quality; and selecting from said subset a transmission mode as the current transmission mode, which provides a transmission rate closest to the calculated target transmission rate.