Patent ID: 8208496
Filing Date: 2012-06-26
Classification: H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
1. A point-to-multipoint network, the network comprising: a first line unit having a network interface; a second line unit having a first fractional network interface, wherein the first line unit and the second line unit communicate over a first communications link; a third line unit having a second fractional network interface, wherein the first line unit and the third line unit communicate over a second communications link; wherein the first line unit is adapted to map a first set of user-data timeslots of the network interface to a first N user-data timeslots of the first fractional network interface and map a second set of user-data timeslots of the network interface to a first M user-data timeslots of the second fractional network interface; wherein the first line unit communicates channel associated signaling information via a signaling channel time slot, wherein the signaling channel time slot over a plurality of frames is organized in a structured manner such that consecutive frames carry channel associated signaling information for different combinations of user-data timeslots; and wherein the first line unit is further adapted to map a first set of signaling bits from N signaling bit locations carried by the signaling channel time slot with the first fractional network interface and map a second set of signaling bits from M signaling bit locations carried by the signaling channel time slot with the second fractional network interface; wherein when N is less than 16, the first line unit is adapted to map the first N user-data timeslots of the first fractional network line with respective timeslots when N is greater than 16, the first line unit is adapted to map the first N user-data timeslots of the first fractional network line with respective timeslots