Patent ID: 7474672

Claim:
A method for relaying information in frames among nodes of a packet switching network, the method comprising: acquiring incoming information frames, said incoming information frames including header portions designating format information, frame alteration commands specifying and instructing changes to information in the frames, and packets containing information data, wherein the frame alteration commands are included in one or more frame alteration control blocks in the frame, the frame alteration control blocks including a type field specifying the type of frame, wherein the frame alteration commands are specific to the specified type of frame, and wherein a plurality of types of frame are specifiable in the type field, at least one of the plurality of types of frame being associated with a first network protocol and at least one different one of the types of frame being associated with a second network protocol different from the first network protocol; parsing the frame alteration control blocks to obtain said frame alteration commands, the parsing being based on the type of frame as obtained from the type field of the frame alteration control blocks, and changing the information included in said frames as instructed by said frame alteration commands to convert the incoming information frames from one network protocol to a different network protocol, including decoding said alteration commands to control the changing of the information in said frames; storing predetermined data patterns; selecting a desired predetermined data pattern as instructed by said frame alteration commands; and providing a selected predetermined data pattern and inserting or overlaying the selected predetermined data pattern in the information in said frames to convert the frames to the different network protocol; and relaying altered frames to a different node of the packet switching network.