Patent ID: 7711007

Claim:
A method for synchronously switching a plesiochronous signal within a network element, comprising: receiving said plesiochronous signal; mapping said plesiochronous signal into a synchronous signal comprising a plurality of virtually concatenated sub-signals, wherein said synchronous signal is a Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) Virtual Container (VC)-based signal comprising a plurality of virtually concatenated VC signals or a Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) Synchronous Transport Signal (STS)-based signal comprising a plurality of virtually concatenated STS signals; inserting path overhead (POH) data into said synchronous signal; and switching said sub-signals of said synchronous signal within said network element using synchronous switching, wherein said synchronous switching is performed using VC-based switching if said synchronous signal is an SDH VC-based signal or using STS-based switching if said synchronous signal is a SONET STS-based signal, wherein said synchronous switching is performed using at least a portion of said POH data.