Patent ID: 8868771

Claim:
A method for transmitting data in a data network, comprising the steps of: in a network element at a transmission end of the data network: combining virtual containers using a Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) to form a virtual concatenated group (VCG); splitting for internal processing in the network element the virtual concatenated group (VCG) into a first sub virtual concatenated group (Sub-VCG1) and a second sub virtual concatenated group (Sub-VCG2); inserting user data of only a first type into containers of the first sub virtual concatenated group and inserting user data of only a second type into containers of the second sub virtual concatenated group; combining the virtual containers of the first and the second sub virtual concatenated groups using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form a first portion of the virtual concatenated group (VCG) with one half of a virtual concatenated group (VCG) capacity, and combining further containers of both sub virtual concatenated groups (Sub-VCG1, Sub-VCG2) using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form to a second portion of the virtual concatenated group (VCG) with an equal capacity; and transmitting the first portion of the virtual concatenated group via a first transmission path, and transmitting the second portion of the virtual concatenated group via a second transmission path in the data network.