Efficient variably-channelized SONET multiplexer and payload mapper
First Claim
1. A multiplexed payload processing system comprising:
- an input data conversion network including a multi-stream merge network, having means for receiving parallel streams of variable-width data which are spatially separated on an input data bus, the parallel streams of variable-width data being incoming Synchronous Optical Network (SON ET) frame streams;
means for converting said parallel streams of data of variable width into a time-division-multiplex (TDM) data stream of constant width;
means for outputting said TDM data stream onto a TDM bus as a sequence of data words; and
a time-sliced processing unit having means for receiving said TDM stream of data words from said TDM bus;
means for extracting payload information from said TDM stream of data words;
means for processing said payload information in a fixed repetitive manner; and
means for outputting the results on to an output data bus.
6 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a multiplexed payload system for processing data organized in any interleaved framing structure, preferably SONET. Along a receive path, the system consists of an input shift register, an input multi-stream merge network, a time-sliced processing unit, and a context memory. Similarly, along a transmit path, the system consists of an output shift register, an output multi-stream merge network, a time-sliced processing unit, and a context memory. The transmit path functions in an identical manner to the receive path but in the reverse direction. The multi-stream merge network, in either direction, converts between spatially separated input data streams of various configurable widths and time-division-multiplexed streams of constant width. The input shift register and the output shift register serve to accept a serial stream of bytes from the data receiver and convert them to a parallel stream of bytes presented to the input multi-stream merge network, or to accept a parallel stream of bytes from the output multi-stream merge network and convert them to a serial stream of bytes to the data transmitter, respectively. The context memory stores the processing contexts for sub-rate payload streams derived from the serial stream of bytes. A separate context memory location is assigned to each sub-rate payload stream that is received or transmitted. The time-sliced processing unit retrieves processing contexts from the context memory in a fixed sequence and uses the processing contexts to process data presented by the input multi-stream merge network, or generate data presented to the output multi-stream merge network.
19 Citations
19 Claims
-
1. A multiplexed payload processing system comprising:
-
an input data conversion network including a multi-stream merge network, having means for receiving parallel streams of variable-width data which are spatially separated on an input data bus, the parallel streams of variable-width data being incoming Synchronous Optical Network (SON ET) frame streams; means for converting said parallel streams of data of variable width into a time-division-multiplex (TDM) data stream of constant width; means for outputting said TDM data stream onto a TDM bus as a sequence of data words; and a time-sliced processing unit having means for receiving said TDM stream of data words from said TDM bus; means for extracting payload information from said TDM stream of data words; means for processing said payload information in a fixed repetitive manner; and means for outputting the results on to an output data bus. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A multiplexed payload processing system comprising:
-
a time-sliced processing unit having means for receiving a stream of data words from an input data bus; means for processing information contained in said stream of data; means for generating and outputting a time-division-multiplex (TDM) stream of constant-width data words onto a TDM bus in a fixed and repetitive manner;
an output data conversion network including a multi-stream merge network, having means for receiving said fixed TDM stream of constant-width data from said time-sliced processing unit;means for converting said TDM stream of constant-width data words into spatially-separated parallel streams of variable-width data, said parallel streams of variable-width data being multiplexed outgoing SONET frame streams; and means for multiplexing said parallel streams of data on to an output data bus. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method of demultiplexing and processing a payload along a receive path, including the steps of:
-
a) receiving a parallel stream of spatially-multiplexed, variable-width data from an input data bus; b) transferring said parallel stream of variable-width data to an input data conversion network utilizing a multi-stream merge network; c) converting said parallel stream of variable-width data into a fixed and repetitive time-division-multiplex (TDM) stream of constant-width data; d) extracting SONET TDM payload data comprising multiple frame streams from said TDM stream of constant-width data; e) providing a context memory; f) retrieving context information for each of said constant width-data from said context memory; g) processing said extracted payload data using said context information to generate result data; h) outputting said result data onto an output data bus; and i) updating the context information in said context memory.
-
-
19. A method of multiplexing and processing a payload along a transmit path, including the steps of:
-
a) receiving a stream of constant-width data containing SONET TDM payload data comprising multiple frame streams from an input data bus; b) providing a context memory; c) retrieving context information for each of said constant-width data words from a context memory; d) processing said payload data using said context information to generate a fixed and repetitive TDM stream of data; e) outputting said fixed and repetitive TDM stream of data to a TDM bus; f) updating said context information in said context memory; g) converting said fixed and repetitive TDM stream of data into spatially-multiplexed, variable-width parallel streams of data using a data conversion network based on a multi-stream merge network; and h) multiplexing said variable-width parallel streams of data to an output data bus.
-
Specification