Patent ID: 7254207

Claim:
A method of transmitting and receiving a plurality of individual tributary signals in multiplex form via a common line, the method comprising the steps of: converting, at the transmitting end, the individual tributary signals, each of which has a similar initial frequency, into a compound signal having a frame structure with a common data rate, and retrieving, at the receiving end, from the compound signal, each individual tributary signal with its initial frequency, wherein at the transmitting end, phase information including a respective phase difference between each tributary signal and the compound signal is formed and inserted into the compound signal in the form of respective coded bits, and, at the receiving end, the initial frequency of each tributary signal is recovered from the phase information included in the respective coded bits belonging to the respective tributary signals, wherein the phase difference between the compound signal and a tributary signal is calculated using an auxiliary clock, and further comprising the step of calculating a total phase difference, wherein the total phase difference is a function of stuffing information, a phase difference between write and read addresses at a synchronizer at the transmitting end, and a phase difference between write and read addresses at a desynchronizer at the receiving end.