Patent ID: 6925092

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a first communication station operable to receive a first data stream including a first data packet from a first end station and to receive a second data stream including a second data packet from a second end station, wherein, in response to receiving the first data stream from the first end station and failing to receive the second data stream from the second end station, the first communication station is further operable to multiplex the first data packet in a combined data packet, and wherein the combined data packet includes a first header field indicative of a presence of the first data packet in the combined data packet and indicative of an absence of the second data packet from the combined data packet; and a second communication station operable to demultiplex the first data packet in the combined data packet based on the first header field; and a first channel for transmitting the combined data packet from the first communication station to the second communication station.