Patent ID: 7826480

Claim:
A SONET/SDH universal framer, comprising: a provisioning register configured to store provisioning information, wherein a bandwidth of a first SONET/SDH data stream and a bandwidth of a second SONET/SDH data stream are allocated, and a set of enabled services are predetermined using the provisioning register; a SONET/SDH byte engine, coupled to the provisioning register, and configured to process information from the set of enabled services one byte at a time for the first SONET/SDH data stream, wherein the first SONET/SDH data stream comprises a set of STS-1 equivalent frames, cause one or more intermediate states of processing to be restored, processed, and saved as the SONET/SDH byte engine proceeds from a first STS-1 equivalent frame to a second STS-1 equivalent frame, insert SONET transmit information in response to the provisioning information at appropriate positions within the first SONET/SDH data stream, and an elastic storage means, coupled to the provisioning register and the SONET/SDH byte engine, for storing the SONET transmit information for distribution from the set of enabled services.