Methods and apparatuses for circuit emulation multi-channel clock recovery

1. A method for multi-channel circuit emulation clock recovery, wherein a single instance of a clock recovery logic effects circuit emulation clock recovery for a plurality of communications channels, the method comprising:

receiving untimed packets, each packet associated with one of the plurality communications channels of a multi-channel telecommunication system;

storing the packets in a packet buffering memory;

analyzing packets associated with a first channel using the clock recovery logic of a single circuit emulation clock recovery mechanism;

comparing an outgoing clock with a recovered clock for the analyzed packets to effect fine-tuning of the recovered clock;

switching the single circuit emulation clock recovery mechanism to a second channel of the plurality of communications channels, the switching performed in conjunction with a multi-channel context; and

providing recovered fixed-bit independent data streams for each of the plurality of communications channels.

2. A system providing multi-channel circuit emulation clock recovery wherein a single instance of a clock recovery mechanism effects circuit emulation clock recovery for multiple telecommunication channels of a telecommunication system, the system comprising:

a packet buffering memory for storing untimed packets, each packet associated with one of a plurality communications channels of a multi-channel telecommunication system;

the single instance of the circuit emulation clock recovery mechanism for analyzing packets, wherein analyzing includes comparing an outgoing clock with a recovered clock for each packet to effect fine-tuning of the recovered clock; and

a context switching control for switching the single instance of the clock recovery mechanism between the plurality of communications channels to update a context of each channel of the plurality of communications channels, the switching performed in conjunction with a multi-channel context, wherein the clock recovery mechanism is allocated by looping the context-switching control over all of the plurality of communication channels, the clock recovery mechanism allocated, for a specified processing time, to a specified communication channel in which a most recently updated context of the specified communication channel clock recovery mechanism is retrieved from a context memory, the context memory storing an updated context upon completion of the specified processing time.

3. An apparatus for providing multi-channel circuit emulation clock recovery, wherein a single instance of a clock recovery logic effects circuit emulation clock recovery for a plurality of communications channels, including one or more processors and one or more storage devices coupled to a corresponding processor having instructions stored thereon which when executed by the processor cause the processor to perform a method comprising:

receiving untimed packets, each packet associated with one of the plurality communications channels of a multi-channel telecommunication system;

storing the packets in a packet buffering memory;

analyzing packets associated with a first channel using the clock recovery logic of a same circuit emulation clock recovery mechanism;

comparing an outgoing clock with a recovered clock for the analyzed packets to effect fine-tuning of the recovered clock;

switching the same circuit emulation clock recovery mechanism to a second channel of the plurality of communications channels, the switching performed in conjunction with a multi-channel context; and

providing recovered fixed-bit independent data streams for each of the plurality of communications channels.