Patent ID: 6396853
Filing Date: 2002-05-28
Classification: H04J,H04L

Abstract:
A method of multiplexing one or more data channels carrying plesiochronous traffic together with lower priority asynchronous data traffic into a single composite data stream for transmission over a transmission link from an exchange to a user station, the method comprising packing said plesiochronous traffic into variable length minicells each comprising a number of payload bytes and a header element containing channel identification information and a packet length indicator; assigning to each said minicells containing plesiochronous data packet a transmission time such that a predetermined data rate for the plesiochronous data packets is achieved when packets containing a preferred number of bytes are transmitted at the preferred time intervals, wherein the number of payload bytes in each minicell containing said plesiochronous traffic is varied to account for timing differences between the plesiochronous traffic and the transmission over the transmission link.