Patent ID: 7123625

Claim:
A method for reallocating bandwidth used by a data tributary comprising data units during transport of said data tributary over a communications link by a time division multiplexing (TDM) frame from a source device to a sink device, each said data unit occupying one time slot of said frame and said data units being encoded to differentiate between payload data and control codes, said method comprising: (a) at said source device, inserting a designated code in each unallocated time slot to identify that said time slot contains no payload data; (b) determining new set(s) of time slots to be allocated or de-allocated to said tributary; (c) communicating to said sink device said new set(s) of time slots; (d) receiving confirmation of said communication from said sink device; (e) if said new set(s) of time slots are being allocated to said tributary, inserting said data units into said new set(s) of time slots allocated to said tributary; and, (f) if said new set(s) of time slots are being de-allocated to said tributary, discontinuing insertion of said data units into said new set(s) of time slots de-allocated to said tributary; (g) whereby said inserting or discontinuing insertion of data units into said new set(s) of time slots commences upon said confirmation receipt.