Airlink transport container

• US 6,389,036 B1
• Filed: 12/17/1998
• Issued: 05/14/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/1998
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: North South Holdings Incorporated (Spherix Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Harris Broadband Wireless Access Incorporated (L3Harris Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Osborne, Deane, Garat, Scott Gene, Stewart, Jeff M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Ngo, Ricky
• Assistant Examiner(s): TRAN, PHUC H
• Application Number:
  US09/213,641
• Time in Patent Office: 1,244 Days
• Field of Search: 370/400, 370/401, 370/419, 370/465, 370/466, 370/467, 370/470, 370/474, 370/476, 370/535, 370/545, 370/352, 370/404, 370/405, 370/345, 370/521, 370/907, 370/468, 370/477
• US Class Current: 370/466
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 2203/0035 Radio
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 2203/0046 User Network Interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 2203/0089 Multiplexing, e.g. coding, scrambling, SONET
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/0623 Synchronous multiplexing systems, e.g. synchronous digital hierarchy/synchronous optical network (SDH/SONET), synchronisation with a pointer process
• CPC Class Codes: H04J 3/1611 Synchronous digital hierarchy [SDH] or SONET H04J3/1664 takes precedence for interactions with OTN
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 1/004 by using forward error control H04L1/0618 takes precedence; coding, decoding or code conversion, for error detection or correction H03M13/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2001/0097 Relays
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 370/907 Synchronous optical network, SONET

Abstract

A system and method for transparently transporting SONET virtual tributaries over a airlink are shown and described. According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention a hub is coupled to a SONET fiber optic channel which is adapted to receive and transmit SONET data packets over the fiber and to receive and transmit this information in a more efficient transport container over a wireless link to a remote subscriber system. Efficiency of bandwidth is achieved in the preferred embodiment through the use of compression of overhead bytes, dropping unnecessary path overhead information, dropping of redundant information, discarding reserved space, carrying payload in place of repetitive overhead information, and utilizing efficient error correction techniques.

Claims

1. A system for providing transparent communication of native network data packets over a non-native communication link, said system comprising:

a first converter coupled to a communication network, wherein said first converter is adapted to accept a high level synchronous data packet native to said communication network which includes asynchronous payload and map the high level synchronous data packet to a non- native transport container without dropping the asynchronous payload out of the native data packets;

a second converter disposed remotely from said communication network, wherein said second converter is adapted to accept said non-native transport containers and to reassemble said accepted containers into said native network data packets; and

a communication link discrete from said communication network providing information communication between said first converter and said second converter,

wherein said native network data packets include frames of information including payload and overhead information, and wherein said first converter compresses said overhead information for transmission to said second converter, and

wherein compression of said overhead information by said first converter includes collecting at least one frame in addition to the frames to be transmitted in a particular said non-native transport container.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said non-native transport container includes pointer information indicating a placement of ones of said frames within said transport container.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein said pointer information includes phase information indicating an order with respect to said frames.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said frames include overhead information within each of said frames, and said phase information indicates an order of said overhead information.

5. The system of claim 2, wherein a portion of said non-native transport container associated with said pointer information carries payload information when a negative stuff operation occurs and a special condition is met.

6. The system of claim 5, wherein said special condition is a frame of said frames aligns with an end of said native network data packet and a particular order of said frames is not present.

7. The system of claim 2, wherein said pointer information also indicates the occurrence of a positive stuff event.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein said pointer information is complemented to indicate said positive stuff event.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication network comprises a SONET communication network.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein said native network data packets comprise VT1.5 data packets.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said asynchronous payload comprises DS-1 data packets.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said communication link comprises a wireless communication link.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein said wireless link provides radio frequency communication in the millimeter wave spectrum.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein said communication link is a communication link of a point to multi-point communication system, and wherein said first converter is disposed at a hub of said point to multi-point communication system.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein said first converter includes an encoder to encode said non-native transport container for communication to said second converter via said communication link.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said encoder comprises a Reed-Solomon error detection/correction algorithm.

17. A method for providing transparent communication of data formatted for use according to a network infrastructure from a first device over an information communication link to a second device, said method comprising the steps of:

accepting data formatted for use according to said network infrastructure at said first device, wherein said format of said data includes a transport container associated with said network infrastructure and said transport container includes preformatted payload;

converting at said first device the network transport container of said accepted data to a link transport container, wherein said conversion of said network transport container to said link container does not require dropping said preformatted payload out of said network transport container; and

de-converting at said second device the link transport container to provide said accepted data in a format for use by said remote device,

wherein said network transport container is a virtual tributary of a SONET data stream, and

wherein said converting step comprises the step of compressing overhead information of said virtual tributary for transmission over said information communication link in said link transport container, and

wherein said compressing step comprises the step of collecting information associated with a virtual tributary other than a current virtual tributary to be transmitted in said link transport container.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein said converting step further comprises the step of including pointer information within said link transport container indicating a relative location of said preformatted payload within said link transport container.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein said converting step further comprises the step of:

including phase information indicating an order of overhead information of said preformatted payload.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of including pointer information comprises the step of:

determining the presence of a negative stuff event in the network transport container and including said pointer information only if a predefined condition is met.

21. The method of claim 18, wherein said step of including pointer information comprises the step of:

logically inverting said pointer information to indicate the occurrence of a positive stuff event.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein said information communication link comprises a wireless communication link.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein said information communication link comprises a communication link of a point to multi-point commnunication system.

24. A method for providing transparent communication of virtual tributaries associated with a SONET network over an airlink, said method comprising the steps of:

coupling a first transport container converter to said SONET network;

coupling a second transport container converter to a remote device;

establishing an information communication link between said first converter and said second converter;

accepting SONET data streams including said virtual tributaries at one of said first or second converters;

converting ones of the accepted virtual tributaries to airlink transport containers;

transmitting said airlink transport containers to the other one of said first or second converters; and

converting said airlink transport containers to said virtual tributaries,

wherein said converting step comprises the step of compressing overhead information of said virtual tributary by polling stuff control bits of the virtual tributary to drop redundant bits, and

wherein said compressing step comprises the step of collecting information associated with a virtual tributary other than a current virtual tributary to be transmitted in said airlink transport container.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein said converting step comprises the step of including pointer information within said link transport container indicating a position at which to insert overhead information in said virtual tributaries converted from said airlink transport containers.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein said converting step further comprises the step of:

including phase information indicating an order of overhead information of said virtual tributaries.

27. A system for providing transparent communication of VT1.5 transport containers of a SONET network over an airlink, said system comprising:

a first transport container converter coupled to said SONET network accepting VT1.5 transport containers from said SONET network and converting ones of the accepted VT1.5 transport containers to airlink transport containers;

a second transport container converter coupled to a remote device converting airlink transport containers to VT1.5 transport containers; and

an information communication link between said first converter and said second converter, wherein said airlink transport containers converted by said first converter are transmitted to said second converter via said information communication link,

wherein said airlink transport container includes a distributed data byte, and

wherein said distributed data byte comprises at lest one information bit, at least one stuff bit, and at least one control bit.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein said airlink transport container comprises four frames of information.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein said four frames of information include a total of four 24 byte payload packets.

30. The system of claim 28, wherein said four frames of information are not all of a same byte length.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein at least one of said four frames of information is 24 bytes and another one of said four frames of information is 25 bytes.

32. The system of claim 27, wherein said distributed data byte further comprises at least one bit indicating a negative stuff event.

33. The system of claim 27, wherein said airlink transport container includes a pointer byte.

34. The system of claim 33, wherein said pointer byte comprises at least one relative location information bit and at least one phase information bit.