General transport layer gateway for heterogeneous networks

In a gateway for being interconnected between a first SPTN running a first transport provider protocol and a second SPTN running a second protocol, said gateway comprising first and second transport providers for interfacing with said first and second SPTNs and further comprising a general gateway services element for providing gateway services to said first and second transport providers, a method of conveying a basic link unit BLU from said first SPTN to said second SPTN, said received BLU consisting of header information conforming to said first protocol, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving said BLU from said first SPTN in said first transport provider;
• in said first transport provider, processing said header information into a general form understood by said general gateway services element;
• conveying to said general gateway services element said general form header information;
• in said general gateway services element, building a multiprotocol transport network MPTN header;
• in said general gateway services element, creating new general form header information based upon said general form header information;
• conveying to said second transport provider said MPTN header and said new general form header information;
• and
• in said second transport provider, processing said new general form header information into a header information conforming to said second protocol;
• and
• from said second transport provider, conveying, to said second SPTN, a second protocol BLU having said second protocol header information and said MPTN header.

A gateway for being interconnected between a first single protocol transport network SPTN running a first transport provider protocol and a second SPTN running a second transport provider protocol, for receiving from a multiprotocol transport MPTN node connected to said first SPTN a basic link unit BLU having header information conforming to said first protocol and further having MPTN header information, for processing said first protocol BLU to a BLU having header information conforming to said second protocol, and conveying said second protocol BLU to a native node connected to said second SPTN, said gateway comprising:

• a first SPTN transport provider having means for receiving said first protocol BLU and means for processing said first protocol header information into a general form;
• a second SPTN transport provider having means for conveying said second protocol BLU to said second SPTN, and means for processing general form header information into header information conforming to said second protocol;
• and
• an element for providing general gateway services for said first and second SPTN transport providers comprising means for receiving general form header information and said MPTN header information from said first SPTN transport provider, means for processing said received general form header information and said MPTN header information, means for creating new general form header information and means for conveying to said second SPTN transport provider said new general form header information.

In a gateway for being interconnected between a first single protocol transport network SPTN running a first transport provider protocol and a second SPTN running a second protocol, said gateway comprising first and second transport providers for interfacing with said first and second SPTNs and further comprising a general gateway services element for providing gateway services to said first and second transport providers, a method of conveying a basic link unit BLU from said first SPTN to said second SPTN, said received BLU consisting of header information conforming to said first protocol and further consisting of multiprotocol transport network MPTN header information, said method comprising the steps of:

• receiving said BLU from said first SPTN in said first transport provider;
• in said first transport provider, processing said header information into a general form understood by said general gateway services element;
• conveying to said general gateway services element said general form header information and said MPTN header information;
• in said general gateway services element, processing said MPTN header information;
• in said general gateway services element, creating new general form header information based upon said general form header information;
• conveying to said second transport provider said new general form header information;
• and
• in said second transport provider, processing said new general form header information into a header information conforming to said second protocol;
• and
• from said second transport provider, conveying, to said second SPTN, a second protocol BLU having said second protocol header information.