Patent ID: 7515605

Claim:
A method for data communications, comprising: receiving a time-division-multiplexed (TDM) input signal carrying a payload comprising data; determining whether the data comprise synchronous or non-synchronous data; selecting a first encapsulation scheme if the data comprise synchronous data, and a second encapsulation scheme if the data comprise non-synchronous data; and encapsulating the data for transmission over a packet-switched network in accordance with the selected encapsulation scheme, encapsulating the data in accordance with said second encapsulation scheme comprising: detecting idle data in the payload carried by the TDM input signal; and generating output packets to encapsulate the data while omitting from the output packets at least some of the idle data, said generating the output packets comprising joining together at least first and second information-carrying sequences of the data from the TDM input signal so as to generate one of the output packets while eliminating all but a single unit of the idle data intervening between the first and second information-carrying sequences in the TDM input signal.