US 6,389,036 B1 · Airlink transport container

Abstract

A system and method for transparently transporting SONET virtual tributaries over a airlink are shown and described. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention a hub is coupled to a SONET fiber optic channel which is adapted to receive and transmit SONET data packets over the fiber and to receive and transmit this information in a more efficient transport container over a wireless link to a remote subscriber system. Efficiency of bandwidth is achieved in the preferred embodiment through the use of compression of overhead bytes, dropping unnecessary path overhead information, dropping of redundant information, discarding reserved space, carrying payload in place of repetitive overhead information, and utilizing efficient error correction techniques.

Claims34

Dependent claims

A system for providing transparent communication of native network data packets over a non-native communication link, said system comprising:

a first converter coupled to a communication network, wherein said first converter is adapted to accept a high level synchronous data packet native to said communication network which includes asynchronous payload and map the high level synchronous data packet to a non- native transport container without dropping the asynchronous payload out of the native data packets;
a second converter disposed remotely from said communication network, wherein said second converter is adapted to accept said non-native transport containers and to reassemble said accepted containers into said native network data packets;
and
a communication link discrete from said communication network providing information communication between said first converter and said second converter,
wherein said native network data packets include frames of information including payload and overhead information, and wherein said first converter compresses said overhead information for transmission to said second converter, and
wherein compression of said overhead information by said first converter includes collecting at least one frame in addition to the frames to be transmitted in a particular said non-native transport container.

3 more elements

A method for providing transparent communication of data formatted for use according to a network infrastructure from a first device over an information communication link to a second device, said method comprising the steps of:

accepting data formatted for use according to said network infrastructure at said first device, wherein said format of said data includes a transport container associated with said network infrastructure and said transport container includes preformatted payload;
converting at said first device the network transport container of said accepted data to a link transport container, wherein said conversion of said network transport container to said link container does not require dropping said preformatted payload out of said network transport container;
and
de-converting at said second device the link transport container to provide said accepted data in a format for use by said remote device,
wherein said network transport container is a virtual tributary of a SONET data stream, and
wherein said converting step comprises the step of compressing overhead information of said virtual tributary for transmission over said information communication link in said link transport container, and
wherein said compressing step comprises the step of collecting information associated with a virtual tributary other than a current virtual tributary to be transmitted in said link transport container.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Airlink transport container

Life of this patent

Airlink transport container

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims34