A method and apparatus for dynamically configuring parameters of the radio link protocol layer in a telecommunications system. The method and apparatus allows dynamic configuration of the radio link protocol layer in order to optimize parameters for use with a particular data service. In an embodiment of the invention, radio link protocol control frames used for connection initialization include RLP parameter data. The RLP parameter data is exchanged between two communicating transceiving devices during connection initialization, and is used in each transceiving device to configure subsequently transmitted RLP data frames and transmit retransmission requests accordingly.