Non-Intrusive Deskew of Trunked Clients in an Optical Network Transport System

A process for removing skew across a set of at least two clients that are members of a particular trunk,

• the skew removed from a data path from a first communications system component to a second communications system component;
• the process comprising:
• configuring the first communications system component and the second communications system component for participation in a deskew operation, including identifying the set of at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk;
• sending a stream of idle primitives from the first communication system component to the second communication system component on the at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk;
• at the first communication system component, trigger the deskew operation and send a deskew marker on the at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk;
• at the second communication system component, for each client in the set of at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk, look for the deskew marker,
• upon receipt of the deskew marker for a particular client,
• A) replace the deskew marker with a replacement idle primitive, place that replacement idle primitive and all subsequently received idle primitives for that particular client into a FIFO for that particular client;
• B) note that the deskew marker has been received for that particular client;
• after receipt of a final deskew marker needed to form a complete set of deskew markers,
• one for each client in the set of at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk—then begin clocked release from the set of FIFO for the set of at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk so that the replacement idle primitives are released in lockstep with at least some skew removed;
• and
• beginning clocked release from the set of FIFO for the set of at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk;
• after beginning clocked release stopping sending the stream of idle primitives from the first communication system component to the second communication system component on the at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk and then begin sending client data from the first communication system component to the second communication system component on the at least two clients that are members of the particular trunk wherein the client data for each client goes through the FIFO for that particular client.