Patent ID: 7822022

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: a line card with a first section, wherein the first section comprises: a section and line termination circuit configured to perform section and line termination, and framing and overhead processing for a first protocol signal; an integrated circuit chip configured to encapsulate and map an Ethernet signal into the first protocol signal; switches configured to: route the Ethernet signal to the integrated circuit chip; route the first protocol signal to the section and line termination circuit; route second protocol signals to the section and line termination circuit; a pluggable interface; a first daughter card configured to plug into the pluggable interface comprising: a multiport optics module comprising a plurality of ports and configured to receive either the Ethernet signal or second protocol signals; a configurable clock and data recovery module configured to: recover the Ethernet signal from the multiport optics module and pass the Ethernet signal to the switches when the configurable clock and data recovery module is configured for Ethernet signals; and receive the second protocol signals of various bandwidths when the configurable clock and data recovery module is configured for second protocol signals and deliver the second protocol signals at a highest available second protocol bandwidth to the switches.