Patent ID: 7000136

Claim:
A multiplexed payload processing system comprising: an input data conversion network including a multi-stream merge network, having means for receiving parallel streams of variable-width data which are spatially separated on an input data bus, the parallel streams of variable-width data being incoming Synchronous Optical Network (SON ET) frame streams; means for converting said parallel streams of data of variable width into a time-division-multiplex (TDM) data stream of constant width; means for outputting said TDM data stream onto a TDM bus as a sequence of data words; and a time-sliced processing unit having means for receiving said TDM stream of data words from said TDM bus; means for extracting payload information from said TDM stream of data words; means for processing said payload information in a fixed repetitive manner; and means for outputting the results on to an output data bus.