# US 7,466,720 B2 · Flexible architecture for SONET and OTN frame processing

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- Number: US 7,466,720 B2
- Document ID: US7466720B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 10/273,626
- Filed: 2002-10-18
- Published: 2004-04-22
- Granted: 2008-12-16
- Earliest claimed: 2002-10-18
- Inventors: Ole Bentz; Michael J. Haertel; I. Claude Denton
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US7466720B2

## CPC

- H04J 3/1611: {Synchronous digital hierarchy [SDH] or SONET (H04J3/1664 takes precedence for interactions with OTN)}
- H04J 2203/0051: Network Node Interface, e.g. tandem connections, transit switching
- H04J: MULTIPLEX COMMUNICATION (transmission in general H04B; peculiar to transmission of digital information H04L5/00; systems for the simultaneous or sequential transmission of more than one television signal H04N7/08; in exchanges H04Q11/00; stereophonic systems H04S)

## Abstract

A flexible architecture is presented that allows either Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) framing, Optical Transport Network (OTN) framing, or SONET framing followed by OTN framing. The architecture consists of SONET frame processors, OTN frame processors, and a configurable selection network.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An apparatus comprising:
an Optical Transport Network (OTN) frame processor having an input port coupled to a primary input bus and an output port coupled to an OTN output bus;
a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) frame processor having an output port coupled to a SONET output bus and an input port selectably coupled to one of the primary input bus and the OTN output bus;
a SONET frame detector coupled between the input port of the SONET frame processor and the primary input bus and the OTN output bus; and
a primary output bus selectably coupled to one of the SONET output bus and the OTN output bus.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a two-to-one selector selectably coupling the primary input bus and the OTN output bus to the input port of the SONET frame processor.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The apparatus of claim 2 further comprising:
a programmable interface equipped to store a selection indicator for the two-to-one selector.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a two-to-one selector selectably coupling the SONET output bus and the OTN output bus to the primary output bus.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The apparatus of claim 4 further comprising:
a programmable interface equipped to store a selection indicator for the two-to-one selector.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a forward error correction unit equipped to read forward error correction data and payload data from OTN frames received at the input port of the OTN frame processor, and calculate forward error correction results based, at least in part, on the forward error correction data and the payload data.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
a burst compensation buffer equipped to store a particular amount of output data from the OTN frame processor to match an input data rate for the OTN frame processor to an output data rate for the OTN frame processor.

### Claim 8 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 wherein the SONET frame processor comprises:
a SONET demultiplexer equipped to demultiplex a plurality of independent SONET streams from a single SONET stream.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1 further comprising:
an OTN frame detector coupled between the primary input bus and the input port of the OTN frame processor.

### Claim 10

A method comprising:
deframing Optical Transport Network (OTN) frames from a primary data stream into a first data stream;
selecting either the primary data stream or the first data stream as a selected signal;
detecting a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) frame from the selected signal to generate a detected SONET stream;
after detecting the SONET frame, receiving the detected SONET stream into a SONET frame processor;
deframing said detected SONET stream into a second data stream; and
selectably transmitting either the first data stream or the second data stream as an output data stream.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 further comprising:
configuring a selection of either the primary input data stream or the first data stream for deframing into the second data stream.

### Claim 12 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 further comprising:
configuring a selection of either the first data stream or the second data stream for transmitting.

### Claim 13 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein the primary input comprises a single SONET data stream having a first data rate, and wherein the output data stream comprises four independent SONET data streams, each having a second data rate that is one-quarter of the first data rate.

### Claim 14 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein the output data stream comprises at least one data stream selected from the group consisting essentially of a SONET data stream, an Ethernet data stream, an Internet Protocol (IP) data stream, an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) data stream, a fibre Channel data stream, a time division multiplexing (TDM) data stream, and a frame relay data stream.

### Claim 15 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein selectably deframing comprises:
stripping a SONET header from SONET frames; and
extracting payload data from the SONET frames.

### Claim 16 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein the primary input comprises an OTN data stream, wherein an output data rate following deframing of the OTN frames is lower than an input data rate to accommodate overhead data inserted into the OTN data stream, and wherein deframing the OTN frames comprises:
matching the output data rate to the input data rate.

### Claim 17 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein, prior to deframing the OTN frames, the method further comprises:
detecting the OTN frames in the primary data stream; and
aligning the OTN frames.

### Claim 18 (depends on 10)

The method of claim 10 wherein detecting further comprises:
aligning SONET frames.