METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSPORTING CLIENT SIGNALS OVER TRANSPORT NETWORKS USING VIRTUAL CONCATENATION

摘要

The invention includes a method and apparatus for transporting a client signal over a transport network using enhanced virtual concatenation (VCAT) and enhanced link capacity adjustment scheme (LCAS) techniques. A method includes provisioning, for a client signal, a virtual concatenation group (VCG) signal having a VCG signal bandwidth, converting the VCG signal into a set of VCG member signals including a plurality of working VCG member signals and at least one protection VCG member signal where the set of VCG member signals has an aggregate bandwidth greater than the VCG signal bandwidth, and propagating the client signal toward the transport network using the set of VCG member signals. The client signal is initially conveyed by the working VCG member signals, and the at least one protection VCG member signal is available to protect the working VCG member signals. The client signal may be a constant bit rate (CBR) client signal.