Patent ID: 7856036

Claim:
A method of communicating in a network, the method comprising: receiving one or more signals, each signal configured according to a respective first interface format, via one or more application ports in a central digital subscriber line (DSL) unit; extracting timeslots from each of the one or more signals; inserting the extracted timeslots into at least one DSL frame in a specific order; transmitting the at least one DSL frame to at least one of a plurality of remote DSL units, each of the plurality of remote DSL units coupled to the central DSL unit via a respective independent DSL link; extracting timeslots from the at least one DSL frame in the at least one remote DSL unit; and passing the extracted timeslots to one or more application ports in the at least one remote DSL unit based on the specific order in which the timeslots were inserted into the at least one DSL frame.