Method for transmitting data, and network element for a data network

1. A method for transmitting data in a data network, comprising the steps of:

in a network element at a transmission end of the data network:

combining virtual containers using a Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) to form a virtual concatenated group (VCG);

splitting for internal processing in the network element the virtual concatenated group (VCG) into a first sub virtual concatenated group (Sub-VCG1) and a second sub virtual concatenated group (Sub-VCG2);

inserting user data of only a first type into containers of the first sub virtual concatenated group and inserting user data of only a second type into containers of the second sub virtual concatenated group;

combining the virtual containers of the first and the second sub virtual concatenated groups using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form a first portion of the virtual concatenated group (VCG) with one half of a virtual concatenated group (VCG) capacity, and combining further containers of both sub virtual concatenated groups (Sub-VCG1, Sub-VCG2) using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form to a second portion of the virtual concatenated group (VCG) with an equal capacity; and

transmitting the first portion of the virtual concatenated group via a first transmission path, and transmitting the second portion of the virtual concatenated group via a second transmission path in the data network.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the user data of the first type originate from a first data signal and the user data of the second type originate from a second data signal, so that the virtual concatenated group transmits two data signals or client signals.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first sub virtual concatenated group is used to transmit higher priority data and the second sub virtual concatenated group is used to transmit low priority data.

4. The method as claimed in claim 3 , wherein in the event of a fault on a transmission path the remaining transmission path is used to transmit primarily data from the first sub virtual concatenated group.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the first and second sub virtual concatenated groups are identified by an additional entry in a field associated with the LCAS protocol.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the first and second sub virtual concatenated groups are identified by an additional entry in the CTRL field of the LCAS protocol.

7. A network element for a data network, comprising:

at least one device at a transmission end to perform:

combining virtual containers using a Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) to form a virtual concatenated group;

splitting for internal processing in the network element the virtual concatenated group (VCG) into a first sub virtual concatenated group (Sub-VCG1) and a second virtual sub concatenated group (Sub-VCG2);

inserting user data of only a first type into the first sub virtual concatenated group and inserting user data of only a second type into the second sub virtual concatenated group;

combining the virtual containers of the first and the second sub virtual concatenated group using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form a first portion of the virtual concatenated group with one half of a virtual concatenated group (VCG) capacity;

combining further containers of both sub virtual concatenated groups using the Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme to form to a second portion of the virtual concatenated group with an equal capacity; and

transmitting the first portion of the virtual concatenated group via a first transmission path, and transmitting the second portion of the virtual concatenated group via a second transmission path in the data network.