Network architectures with transparent transport capabilities

A transparent ADM for a telecommunications network operating according to a synchronous transfer mode standard, at a high traffic rate comprising:

• a trib input port and a trib output port for respectively receiving K input tribs and transmitting K output tribs, each trib of a bandwidth Ri;
• an add/drop port for adding and dropping L local tribs;
• a transparent multiplexer for transparently multiplexing said K input tribs and said add local traffic into an output high rate signal;
• and
• a transparent demultiplexer for receiving an input high rate signal and demultiplexing same into said K output trib signals and said L drop tribs.

A telecommunications network operating according to a synchronous transfer mode standard, comprising:

• a plurality (J) of transparent add-drop multiplexers (ADM-T) connected in a high rate bidirectional self-healing ring configuration over a high speed span;
• at each ADM-Tj site, a plurality (L) of nodes subtended by said ADM-Tj and connected to said ADM-Tj over a l-th W/P line for transporting working and protection traffic in a forward direction, and a l-th P/W line for transporting protection and working traffic in a reverse direction at a ring rate Rl;
• a plurality (M) of bidirectional self-healing rings including said ADM-Tj, each ring (Km) including at least two nodes connected to each other and to said ADM-Tj over a m-th W/P line for transporting working and protection traffic in a forward direction, and a m-th P/W line for transporting protection and working traffic in a reverse direction at a ring rate Rm,
• wherein J, L, and M are integers, j is the index of a respective ADM-T in said high rate bidirectional self-healing ring configuration, l is the index of a respective subtended node, m is the index of a respective bidirectional self-healing ring, and said high rate is L×Rl+M×Rm.

A telecommunications network operating according to a synchronous transfer mode standard, comprising:

• a first transparent ADM and a second transparent ADM connected in a main network over a high speed span for transmitting a high rate signal including a main signal and a subsidiary signal nested within said main signal;
• a first lower rate ADM at the site of said first ADM and a second lower rate ADM at the site of said second ADM for communicating to each other over said subsidiary signal;
• a first additional input/output port at said first ADM for transferring said subsidiary signal to and from said first lower rate ADM;
• and
• a second additional input/output port at said second ADM for transferring said subsidiary signal to and from said second lower rate ADM.