Method and system for efficiently passing the silence or unused status of a DSO channel through a DsO switch matrix and a data switch

A method for removing channels from a data transmission, comprising:

• receiving a plurality of bytes of data associated with a plurality of channels;
• identifying at least one unused byte in the plurality of bytes;
• and
• generating a data packet comprising at least a portion of the plurality of bytes, the data packet including a flag indicating that the at least one unused byte has been suppressed.

A system for removing channels from a data transmission, comprising:

• a first node configured to:
• receive a plurality of bytes of data,
• identify at least one unused byte in the plurality of bytes,
• generate a data packet comprising at least a portion of the plurality of bytes of data, and
• attach a flag to the data packet, the flag indicating that the at least one unused byte has been omitted from the data packet.

A method for removing channels when transmitting information over a communications network including a plurality of nodes, comprising:

• determining, by a first node, if at least one byte in a plurality of bytes to be transmitted is unused;
• generating a packet comprising at least a portion of the plurality of bytes;
• attaching a flag to the packet when the determining indicates that at least one byte is unused;
• and
• transmitting, by the first node, the packet.

A system for removing data channels from a data transmission, comprising:

• means for determining if at least one byte in a plurality of bytes is at least one of silent or unused;
• means for generating a data packet comprising at least a portion of the plurality of bytes, the means for generating omitting each byte determined to be at least one of silent or unused;
• and
• means for attaching a flag to the data packet when at least one byte is omitted.