Patent ID: 7599372

Claim:
An apparatus for integrating switching and transferring of input synchronous optical network/synchronous digital hierarchy (SONET/SDH) signals, plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH) signals, and Ethernet signals, the apparatus comprising: a channel configuration management control unit that generates first information which includes switching, bridging and framing information of the input signals; an Ethernet signal connection unit that transforms the Ethernet signal into packets with predetermined length and using the first information for outputting the packets; a packet switch that switches the packets using the first information; a PDH/SONET/SDH signals connection unit that maps a digital signal level-n (DSn) signal and an optical carrier level-M (OC-M)/synchronous transport module level N(STM-N) signal into a virtual container level 3 or 4 (VC3/4) signal; a timeslot switch that switches a timeslot of VC3/4 units using the first information, and generates and distributes a system synchronizing signal by receiving and using a network synchronizing signal; and a packet/timeslot switch that transforms an Ethernet signal extracted from the timeslot switched VC3/4 into packets with a predetermined length using the first information, and maps an Ethernet signal generated by reassembling the packets switched to the VC3/4 and carrying out an Ethernet over SONET/SDH (EOS) function.