Apparatus and methods for circuit emulation of a point-to-point protocol operating over a multi-packet label switching network

A method for circuit emulation over a multi-packet label switching (MPLS) network, comprising:

• receiving a time division multiplexed data stream at an ingress end from an optical carrier;
• dividing the data stream into a set of fixed sized packets;
• adding a service header to each of the packets;
• adding an additional header on top of the service header in accordance with MPLS protocols;
• removing the additional header after each packet has been processed by the MPLS network;
• using the service header to recover the data stream at an egress end;
• storing a first set of frames of the data stream into a data buffer during times clocks of the ingress and egress ends cannot be traced to a common reference source;
• calculating a first data average of the first set of frames in the data buffer to obtain a threshold value;
• storing a next set of frames into the data buffer;
• calculating a next data average of the next set of frames in the data buffer;
• comparing the next data average to the threshold value;
• and
• if the next data average is greater than the threshold value, generating a negative justification indicator and sending one more byte at the egress end, or if the next data average is less than the threshold value, generating a positive justification indicator and sending one less byte at the egress end.