Patent ID: 7729615

Claim:
A method for transmitting signaling and control information for a wavelength-division multiplex network that performs an optical, fiber-bound information transfer in a digitized form, comprising: using a terminal to process useful information according to one of an optical encoding and an optical decoding; performing one of: feeding at a network terminator the useful information into the wavelength-division multiplex network as an optical signal having a defined fundamental wavelength, and removing at the network terminator the useful information from the wavelength-division multiplex network as the optical signal having the defined fundamental wavelength; transmitting collectively a plurality of signals having different wavelengths in an optical fiber; performing one of a generation and an analysis of the signaling and control information in one of the network terminator and in a further network element; performing one of: feeding the signaling and control information into the wavelength-division multiplex network, and removing the signaling and control information from the wavelength-division multiplex network; using a time-division multiplex operation to transmit the signaling and control information with the defined fundamental wavelength via the same components of the wavelength-division multiplex network as the corresponding useful information, wherein the signaling and control information is modulated independently of the useful information; and transmitting the signaling and control information at regular time intervals T for a predetermined duration of T OH , wherein the signaling and control information includes a characteristic signal sequence by which the signaling and control information is capable of being identified in a signal stream of the useful information such that corresponding transmitters and receivers of the signaling and control information are synchronized, and wherein a synchronization between a transmitter and a receiver of the signaling and control information being accomplished by a characteristic signal being transmitted at brief intervals, and following the synchronization, the characteristic signal being transmitted at variable duration time intervals that gradually increase up to a duration of the regular time intervals T.