System and method for data reconfiguration in an optical communication network

1. A method for converting GEM frames into valid IP packets at an Optical Line Terminal (OLT), the method comprising:

receiving a GEM frame including a data fragment at the OLT;

if the received GEM: frame is a first frame of an IP packet, recovering the Ethernet and IP headers of the frame;

storing the recovered header information in a data table in a memory in a data reconfiguration engine at the OLT;

adjusting the IP header information to indicate that the IP packet is fragmented using the data reconfiguration engine;

modifying an indication of a length of the IP packet in the IP header to match a length of the data fragment in the received GEM frame;

recomputing an Ethernet cyclic redundancy check (CRC) using a CRC engine within the data reconfiguration engine; and

sending the IP packet into the core network.

2. A method for converting GEM frames into valid IP packets, the method comprising:

if a GEM frame is not the first frame of an IP packet, looking up the Ethernet and IP headers under the ID of the GEM frame in a data table in a memory within a data reconfiguration engine;

setting a length of an Ethernet packet of the GEM frame to the length of an Ethernet fragment embedded in the GEM frame;

setting a length of an IP packet to the length of an IP fragment embedded in the GEM frame; and

setting an IP fragment offset according to the value of a current_Fragment_Offset entry in the data table.

3. The method of claim 2 further comprising:

incrementing the “Current_Fragment_Offset” value in the data table by a number equal to the length of the IP fragment embedded in the GEM frame.