Patent ID: 8411708

Claim:
A system, comprising: an ingress node configured to: receive a client signal comprising a client rate that is one of a plurality of client rates, asynchronously map the client signal into a first frame of a first rate, asynchronously map the first frame into a second frame of a second rate, the second frame comprising a first asynchronously mapped frame, and output the second frame; an intermediate node configured to: receive the second frame, asynchronously map the first frame into a third frame of a third rate, transfer the third frame through at least a portion of the intermediate node, recover the first frame from the third frame, asynchronously map the first frame into a fourth frame of a fourth rate, and output the fourth frame, the fourth frame comprising a second asynchronously mapped frame, the intermediate node not recovering the client signal or the portion of the client signal from the first frame; and an egress node configured to: receive the fourth frame, recover the first frame from the fourth frame, recover the client signal from the first frame, and output the client signal.