Patent ID: 7362777

Claim:
A method of transporting a client data signal in a plurality of lower bit rate carrier paths across an optical communication network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving at least one client data signal; segmenting said received client data signal into a plurality of lower bit rate data signals, each lower bit rate data signal comprising a portion of payload and a portion of client overhead of the client data signal, said segmenting comprising inverse multiplexing said client data signal into said plurality of lower bit rate data signals; attaching to each of said lower bit rate data signals carrier overhead; transmitting the plurality of lower bit rate signals over said plurality of carrier paths; discarding the carrier overhead from each of said plurality of lower bit rate signals; and reassembling the plurality of lower bit rate signals so as to recover the client signal, said reassembling comprising multiplexing said plurality of lower bit rate data signals to recover said client data signal; wherein the method comprises preparing said client data signal for transmission from a first network of a client operator to a second network of said client operator across a plurality of lower bit rate paths of an independently operated carrier network.