Patent ID: 6721321
Filing Date: 2004-04-13
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A data communication channel processing apparatus for a transmitter, said apparatus comprising:a data channel processor having a protocol stack for data communication with another transmitter; at least one slave processor without having a respective slave protocol stack for said at least one slave processor, said at least one slave processor being external to the data channel processor and having a driver for processing data received from or transmitted to the protocol stack of said data channel processor; and, a linking means for optically transmitting or receiving the data between said data channel processor and the externally connected slave processor according to said protocol stack, wherein said protocol stack includes Open System Interconnection (OSI) layers, and said protocol stack comprises: a data link layer of said OSI layers having a plurality of subnets for providing said data communication, wherein said first subnet executes said data communication in a first direction, said second subnet executes said data communication in a second direction, and the remainder of said subnets executes said data communication with said slave processor; and, a physical layer of said OSI layers having a first section and a second section, said first section corresponding to said first subnet and said second subnet of said data link layer for executing said data communication in said first direction and said second direction, respectively, and said second section corresponding to said remainder of said subnets of said data link layer for providing said data communication with said slave processor.