The present invention relates to protocol stacks and protocol
layers within protocol stacks especially, but not exclusively, for communications terminals such as mobile phones, lap top computers and base stations. The present invention provides a method of providing a
communications protocol for
processing a
signal in a
processing apparatus having a processor and memory, the protocol defined by a plurality of protocol
layers; the method comprising: loading a
software module into the memory, the module arranged to receive and process said
signal according to a set of generic functions corresponding to one of said
layers, the module comprising generic function pointers corresponding to said generic functions in a
function mapping object; loading said
function mapping object into the memory, the object comprising apparatus
specific function pointers corresponding to the generic functions in order to map a said generic function to one or more apparatus specific functions; executing the module according to said mapped apparatus specific functions in order to process received signals according to said protocol layer.