Patent ID: 7054338

Claim:
A method of exchanging data at a first rate between first and second point-to-point entities coupled in a wide area network by a plurality of connections including associated buffers at the first entity, through which data travels at a second rate, the first rate being greater than the second rate, the method comprising: parsing, at the first entity, data frames traveling at the first rate into a plurality of data frames traveling at the second rate, parsing comprising; determining for successive buffers whether a predetermined threshold storage quantity exceeds the number of data bytes stored in the buffer, the predetermined threshold storage quantity is sixteen bytes; selecting the first buffer deteimined to contain less data bytes than the predetermined threshold storage quantity; placing a data frame into the selected buffer, and repeating the determining, selecting, and placing steps as necessary to exchange all of the data between the first and second point-to-point entities; sending the plurality of data frames to the second entity via the plurality of connections; receiving and buffering the plurality of data frames at the second entity; and multiplexing the plurality of data frames into data frames traveling at the first rate.