Patent ID: 8854987

Claim:
A method of transmitting filler cells on inactive sub-links of an Inverse Multiplexing over Asynchronous Transfer Mode (IMA) system having an IMA transmitter, the method comprising, for each pending ATM data cell: selecting a current IMA sub-link via a sub-link ID counter; determining if said current IMA sub-link is active; and, responsive to a determination that said current IMA sub-link is not active: adding said current sub-link ID to a list of identified inactive IMA sub-links and incrementing said sub-link ID counter; and, responsive to a determination that the current IMA sub-link is active: instructing the IMA transmitter to transmit a predefined IMA filler cell on each inactive IMA sub-link identified in the list of identified inactive IMA sub-links and clearing the list of identified inactive IMA sub-links