Patent ID: 8204085

Claim:
A method of transmitting a plurality of different, aligned, data streams in parallel over a synchronous network from a source to a destination, each data stream transmitted by the source over a different path of the synchronous network, said method comprising the steps of: at said source, using a virtual concatenation process on each of the plurality of different, aligned data streams to form a respective plurality of virtually concatenated (VC) data streams each comprising sub-streams of virtually concatenated containers; and inverse multiplexing each data stream, the inverse multiplexing being synchronized so that multi-frame indicators of each data stream are synchronized to occur substantially at a same time prior to transmission so that, at the destination, each of the data streams is received at a different one of a plurality of receivers, the receivers being dynamically synchronized via a connecting link among the plurality of receivers to compensate for a change in delay in one or more of the different paths.