Efficient mapping of CPRI signals for sending over optical networks

An apparatus for communication, comprising:

• a first communication interface, which is configured to receive input frames of Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) signals from multiple CPRI sources, wherein the input frames comprise data symbols derived by encoding respective characters and further comprise one or more synchronization symbols having no corresponding characters, to recover the characters from the data symbols, and to transmit the recovered characters by mapping the characters into communication frames and discarding the synchronization symbols, wherein mapping the characters comprises interleaving the recovered characters using a predefined interleaving scheme that alternates among the multiple CPRI sources;
• and
• a second communication interface, which is configured to receive the communication frames from the first communication interface, to extract the characters from the communication frames by synchronizing to the input frames independently of the synchronization symbols, and to reconstruct the input frames, including the data symbols and the synchronization symbols, by re-encoding the extracted characters.