Patent ID: 7164860

Claim:
A high-speed optical data transport network for communicating an OTU frame over a DWDM segment, comprising: a first transceiver coupled to the DWDM segment for communicating information over the DWDM segment, and a second transceiver coupled to the DWDM segment for communicating information over the DWDM segment with the first transceiver; wherein the first transceiver and the second transceiver each include: (a) a housing having a plurality of line circuit locations to accommodate a number of line circuits and a communication structure for enabling communication between the line circuits; and (b) a plurality of line circuits configured to be inserted into the plurality of line circuit locations, wherein each line circuit includes an external communication interface for communicating with external systems having conventional overhead; (c) wherein each of the line circuits includes a line decoder configured to receive from the external communication interface inbound information, the inbound information further including a first set of network protocols, and a line encoder configured transmit to the external communication interface outbound information, the outbound information further including a second set of network protocols; and (d) wherein each of the line circuits includes an OTN decoder coupled to the line encoder, the OTN decoder configured to decode the outbound information from the DWDM interface, and an OTN encoder coupled to the line decoder, the OTN encoder configured to encode the inbound information including a plurality of the first set of network protocols on the OTU frame, wherein the DWDM interface is further configured to transmit the OTU frame on the DWDM segment.