Data streams are transmitted from a node towards a receiver in a communication network in the form of data packets for playout via a reproduction buffer at the receiver. The data packets are arranged in a scheduling queue and dropped from the scheduling queue if their sojourn time in the queue exceeds a given drop deadline. The reproduction buffer is emulated at the node in order to determine respective playout values for the data packets which are indicative of expected playout instants for the data packets by the reproduction buffer at the receiver. The drop deadlines are assigned to the data packets as a function of the respective playout values determined via the reproduction buffer as emulated at the node.