Patent ID: 7379474

Claim:
A method for converting data in a telecommunications system, the method comprising: receiving data in a plurality of data formats through an interface module, wherein the plurality of data formats includes a variable format of a variable-length and a fixed format of a fixed-length; converting the data in the plurality of data formats to a predetermined network data plane format, the predetermined network data plane format being different from said plurality of data formats; polling the interface module to determine if additional data is available; inserting empty byte characters into the converted data to maintain a data rate of the network data plane format if it is determined that additional data is not available; sending the data in the network data plane format to a network data plane at the rate of the network data plane format; receiving data in the predetermined network data plane format from the network data plane; determining a format from the plurality of data formats into which the data received from the network data plane is converted; converting the data in the network data plane data format to the determined data format; and sending the data in the determined data format to the interface module.