Patent ID: 7796642

Claim:
A method for initializing a communication link for transmitting a data stream from a first computer through a synchronous optical communication network to a second computer, comprising: transmitting a first request message at a first time from the first computer to a first GFP data mapping device; generating a first GFP data frame based on the first request message using the first GFP data mapping device that indicates that the communication link is being requested, and transmitting the first GFP data frame through the synchronous optical communication network; receiving a second GFP data frame at a first GFP data demapping device from the synchronous optical communication network, the second GFP data frame having a first acknowledgement message responsive to the first request message; decoding the second GFP data frame at a second time utilizing the first GFP data demapping device to obtain the first acknowledgement message; and initializing the communication link between the first computer and the second computer in response to the first acknowledgement message.