Patent ID: 8249463

Claim:
A system for managing skew in a transport connection, the system comprising: a transmitting node, coupled to receive a client signal, that maps the client signal into a plurality of polarized channels and transmits the plurality of polarized channels onto the transport connection, each of the plurality of polarized channels including a plurality of frames, each of the plurality of frames including a header, the header including alignment information; a receiving node, coupled to receive the plurality of polarized channels, comprising: a polarization splitter, coupled to receive the plurality of polarized channels, that separates the plurality of polarized channels into a first channel and a second channel; a skew compensation module, coupled to receive the first channel, that reduces skew between the first and second channels by adding latency to the first channel based on the frame alignment information; and a client signal reconstruction module, coupled to receive the skew compensated first and second channels, that reconstructs the client signal from the skew compensated first and second channels wherein the skew compensation module adds latency to the first channel within an optical domain.