Patent ID: 8045582

Claim:
A communication system, comprising: a data conversion module configured to receive a first plurality of data streams and to provide a second plurality of data streams, each of the second plurality of data streams comprising first data units, channel identifiers, sample size indicators, valid signal indicators, and format indicators, each of the first data units associated with one of the channel identifiers, one of the sample size indicators, and one of the format indicators, the format indicators based on variable bandwidths of data streams; a framer configured to receive the second plurality of data streams in a form of a single data stream, to identify channel information of the second plurality of data streams in the form of the single data stream, and to allocate the second plurality of data streams in the form of the single data stream into one or more self-describing superframes, wherein the single data stream comprises second data units, channel identifiers, sample size indicators, and valid signal indicators, each of the second data units associated with one of the channel identifiers of the single data stream and one of the sample size indicators of the single data stream.