Patent ID: 7526197

Claim:
A system for communicating data over a Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy, the system comprising: an Optical Line Termination unit operable to: interface with a plurality of Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy communication paths, communicate a portion of data of a communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy on a first communication path of the plurality of Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy communication paths employing the entire bandwidth of the first communication path to communicate the data of the communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy; communicate a different portion of the data of the same communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy on a second communication path of the plurality of Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy communication paths employing the entire bandwidth of the second communication path to communicate the different data of the communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy; wherein the portion of the data of the communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and the different portion of the data of the same communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy are communicated simultaneously; and communicate the portion of the data of the communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy and the different portion of the data of the same communication over the Synchronous Optical Network/Synchronous Digital Hierarchy on the first communication path employing the entire bandwidth of the first communication path when a break is detected in the second communication path, wherein when the first communication path is a working path the second communication path is a protection path and when the first communication path is a protection path the second communication path is a working path.