Patent ID: 7688849

Claim:
An interworking device for maintaining quality of service parameters for transmissions as a native Ethernet service between a first network having a first communication protocol and a second network having a second communication protocol that is different from the first communication protocol, the interworking device including: a first network interface operable to communicate with the first communication network using the first communication protocol; a second network interface operable to communicate with the second communication network using second communication protocol; and a hardware processing unit in communication with the first network interface and the second network interface, the processing unit: receiving a frame from the first network in the first communication protocol; mapping parameters corresponding to quality of service parameters in the first communication protocol to quality of service parameters in the second communication protocol; and assembling a data packet in the second communication protocol, the assembled data packet including mapped quality of service parameters, wherein for frames traveling in a first direction, the first communication protocol is the native Ethernet protocol and the second communication protocol is a selected one of frame relay and ATM, and for frames traveling in a second direction, the first communication protocol is the selected one of frame relay and ATM and the second communication protocol is the native Ethernet protocol, and wherein the interworking device processor further determines a correction factor to match frame overhead differences between frames in the first communication protocol and frames in the second communication protocol.