Transmission of digital information in a frame switched data network
First Claim
1. A system for transmitting digital information from a first network element to a second network element in an Ethernet frame switched data network, the system including:
- in said first network element a writing unit that defines which bits of a frame data field of a minimum sized Ethernet frame correspond to padding bits in a frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame on the basis of a type of an information unit placed in said frame data field and on the basis of a predetermined rule and to write said digital information into a first portion of the padding bits, andin said second network element a reading unit that reads said digital information from said padding bits,wherein said writing unit writes flag data into a second portion of the padding bits of said frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame, said flag data indicates whether said first portion of the padding bits represent said digital information.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The invention relates to transmitting digital information between the network elements of a frame switched data network. In the present invention, it has surprisingly been discovered that the padding bits of the data field of a minimum sized Ethernet frame can be used for transmitting digital information between the elements of a data network. In that case the frame data field (109) of a minimum sized Ethernet frame contains an information unit (DIU), the size of which in bytes is smaller than the minimum size of a frame data field, as well as other digital information (DI) that is written in an area (107) of the frame data field that corresponds to the padding bits. The invention makes it possible to also utilize the data transmission capacity needed for transmitting the padding bits.
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Citations
26 Claims
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1. A system for transmitting digital information from a first network element to a second network element in an Ethernet frame switched data network, the system including:
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in said first network element a writing unit that defines which bits of a frame data field of a minimum sized Ethernet frame correspond to padding bits in a frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame on the basis of a type of an information unit placed in said frame data field and on the basis of a predetermined rule and to write said digital information into a first portion of the padding bits, and in said second network element a reading unit that reads said digital information from said padding bits, wherein said writing unit writes flag data into a second portion of the padding bits of said frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame, said flag data indicates whether said first portion of the padding bits represent said digital information. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A network element, comprising:
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a writing unit, wherein said writing unit defines which bits of a frame data field of a first minimum sized Ethernet Frame correspond to padding bits in the frame data field of the first minimum sized Ethernet frame on the basis of a type of an information unit placed in said frame data field and on the basis of a predetermined rule, writes digital information to be transmitted into a first portion of the padding bits of the frame data field of the first minimum sized Ethernet frame, and writes flag data into a second portion of the padding bits of said frame data field of said first minimum sized Ethernet frame, said flag data being indicates whether said first portion of the padding bits represent said digital information, wherein the network element further comprises a reading unit that reads received digital information from a first portion of padding bits of a frame data field of a second minimum sized Ethernet frame during reception of the second minimum sized Ethernet frame in said network element. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method for transmitting digital information from a first network element to a second network element in an Ethernet frame switched data network, the method comprising:
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in said first network element, defining which bits of a frame data field of a minimum sized Ethernet frame correspond to padding bits in a frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame on the basis of a type of an information unit placed in said frame data field and on the basis of a predetermined rule, in said first network element, writing said digital information into a first portion of the padding bits of the frame data field of the minimum sized Ethernet frame, the frame data field containing a digital information unit in addition to the padding bits in said first network element, writing flag data into a second portion of the padding bits of said frame data field of said minimum sized Ethernet frame, said flag data indicates whether said first portion of the padding bits represent said digital information, transmitting said minimum sized Ethernet frame from said first network element to said second network element, and reading said digital information from said first portion of the padding bits in said second network element. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
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Specification