Patent ID: 7483450

Claim:
A method for synchronizing a second network device to a first network device, the first network device being coupled to an intermediary network device via a first data link, and the intermediary network device being coupled to the second network device via a second data link, at least one of the first data link and the second data link being an asynchronous data link, the method comprising the steps of: embedding, at the first network device, a first clock signal at a physical layer of the first data link; extracting, at the intermediary network device, the first clock signal from the physical layer of the first data link; synchronizing, at the intermediary network device, a first local clock based at least in part on the extracted first clock signal; embedding, at the intermediary network device, a second clock signal at a physical layer of the second data link, the second clock signal representative of the first local clock; adjusting the second clock signal to a transmission rate of the second data link; extracting, at the second network device, the second clock signal from the physical layer of the second data link; and synchronizing, at the second network device, a second local clock based at least in part on the extracted second clock signal.