Patent ID: 7180913

Claim:
A method of generating transport overhead for a high-speed frame of data in a synchronous optical communications network, said high-speed frame of data including a plurality of low-speed frames of data, said method comprising: receiving an indication of error count associated with one of said low-speed frames of data, said indication of error count including a B1 count and a B2 count; determining an error count bit pattern representative of said indication of error count; receiving an indication of synchronization status associated with one of said low-speed frames of data; determining a synchronization status bit pattern representative of said indication of synchronization status; and inserting said error count bit pattern and said synchronization status bit pattern into a transport overhead for said high-speed frame, where said error count bit pattern and said synchronization status bit pattern are inserted in at least one portion of said transport overhead and where said at least one portion is unused according to said standard that defines said high-speed frame.