Patent ID: 7876785

Claim:
A method of transmitting packets via a packet transport network, the method comprising the steps of: at an ingress node of the network, receiving and accumulating packets of one or more client signals, with a variable traffic load of said packets; determining timing information characterizing the timing of the received packets; and mapping the accumulated packets into a container so that in case of low traffic load, packets that are well separated upon arrival at the ingress node are accumulated together in the container and appear to an egress node of the network as a burst of packets after transmission of the container via the transport network, and so that said variable traffic load at the ingress node results in variable times for accumulating packets for the containers, with variations of delay between containers, and in jitter of packet arrival at the egress node; wherein the earliest received packet to be transmitted in a respective container waits during the accumulation of packets for a first time period at the ingress node; transmitting the container and the timing information via the network; and at said egress node of the network, receiving the container, extracting the packets from the container and timing the packets for further transmission based on the timing information; and causing the earliest received packet to wait at the egress node for a second time period such that the sum of the first and second periods is an essentially constant time period, the ratio between the first time period at the ingress node and the second time period at the egress node being dependent on the load of the ingress node.