Patent ID: 8369331

Claim:
A method performed in a network device, the method comprising: receiving, at the network device, multi-protocol layer 2 data from a plurality of network devices; forming a first payload, of a first layer 1 frame, using first layer 2 data of the multi-protocol layer 2 data; constructing a first layer 1 frame header including: a first priority identifier indicating a first priority of the first payload, and a first protocol identifier indicating a first protocol, of a plurality of different types of protocols, of the first layer 2 data; appending the first layer 1 frame header to the first payload to form the first layer 1 frame; forming a second payload, of a second layer 1 frame, using second layer 2 data of the multi-protocol layer 2 data; constructing a second layer 1 frame header including: a second priority identifier indicating a second priority of the second payload, and a second protocol identifier indicating a second protocol, of the second layer 2 data, of the plurality of different types of protocols, the first protocol being different from the second protocol; appending the second layer 1 frame header to the second payload to form the second layer 1 frame, a length of the first layer 1 frame being different from a length of the second layer 1 frame; and outputting, from the network device, the first layer 1 frame and the second layer 1 frame in a same format to a data transfer network.