Patent ID: 7272320

Claim:
A method comprising: time division multiplexing (TDM) at least two inter-system channel (ISC) data streams to create a TDM multiplexed data stream; outputting the TDM multiplexed data stream for forwarding across a network; wherein said time division multiplexing employs a first-in first-out (FIFO) buffer and said method further includes at least one of inserting and deleting words in at least one data stream of said at least two ISC data streams to balance input and output FIFO buffer clocking rates; wherein the at least two ISC data streams comprise at least some of idle sequences, frame sequences and continuous sequences, and wherein said at least one of inserting and deleting comprises employing a first protocol for idle sequences and frame sequences and a second protocol for continuous sequences within the at least one ISC data stream of the at least two ISC data streams; and wherein the first protocol comprises: waiting for a sequence of two idle words, ignoring any null words, and determining whether to insert or delete words from the at least one ISC data stream; if inserting words, adding two idle words subsequent to the two idle words that were detected, and if deleting words, waiting for a sequence of eight idle words, ignoring any null words between the eight idle words, and removing a desired number of null words which occur between two consecutive idle words, and removing in pairs a desired number of idle words.