Transmission of multi-channel MPEG

An apparatus, comprising:

• an interface unit;
• and
• a processor configured to:
• receive multiple channels of data delivered as respective streams of packets;
• form a packet switched communication frame including a sub-layer header;
• encapsulate respective packets from the multiple channels into a payload field of the packet switched communication frame to obtain encapsulated packets;
• identify the encapsulated packets in the payload field with respective tags in the sub-layer header;
• and
• transmit, via the interface unit, the packet switched communication frame to a downstream network element.

A method comprising:

• receiving a communication frame including a payload and a sub-layer header in conformance with a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3) sub-layer header;
• recovering packets from the payload of the communication frame;
• selecting stream processing resources based on information in respective tags in the sub-layer header, wherein the tags correspond with respective packets;
• and
• processing the packets using the selected stream processing resources.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor;
• and
• a memory;
• the processor configured, based on instructions in the memory, to:
• receive a communication frame including a payload and a sub-layer header, wherein the sub-layer header is in conformance with a Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol Version 3 (L2TPv3) sub-layer header;
• recover packets from the payload of the communication frame;
• select a selected stream processing resource based on information from one of a plurality of tags in the sub-layer header respectively associated with the packets;
• and
• process the packets using the selected stream processing resource.