Method of providing synchronous transport of packets between asynchronous network nodes in a frame-based communications network

A method of providing synchronous transport of packets between asynchronous network nodes, each asynchronous network node having a local clock and transmitting and receiving packets to and from the asynchronous network according to an asynchronous network media access protocol, comprising:

• designating as a master node an asynchronous network node capable of transmitting and receiving packets on the asynchronous network;
• designating as a slave node each non-master asynchronous network node which indicates a desire to synchronously transport packets across the asynchronous network as a slave node, wherein each non-master node which does not indicate said desire continues to transmit asynchronously;
• synchronizing a master node clock of the master node with a slave node clock of each slave node;
• determining at the master node, a best arrival time for the reception by the master node of each particular packet transmitted by each particular slave node;
• communicating from the master node to the slave nodes best arrival times for packets transmitted from slave nodes to the master node;
• determining at each slave node best packet assembly times for packets to be transmitted by the particular slave node to the master node in the future in order for the packets to be received by the master node at future master clock referenced best arrival times;
• continuously correcting each slave node clock compared with the master node clock to smooth slave clock error to an average of zero compared with the master clock as a reference in response to a message from the master node;
• preparing packets for transmission at slave nodes according to determined future best packet assembly time information;
• and
• transmitting packets at slave nodes according to the determined future best packet assembly time information.