Apparatus and method for communicating data over a communication channel

1. An OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) configured for transmitting data over a communication channel having at least one physical lane for transmitting data, the OTL comprising:

for each physical lane, allocation circuitry configured for allocating data in logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane; and

for each physical lane, a multiplexer configured for bit-interleaving the data from the logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane into interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane;

wherein, for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for allocating the data such that the interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane has clusters of sequential bits of a same symbol.

2. The OTL of claim 1 , wherein the OTL is configured for transmitting data frames each having a plurality of data portions, each data portion comprising at least one symbol, the OTL further comprising:

distribution circuitry coupled to all of the logical lanes, the distribution circuitry being configured for initially distributing each data portion in round robin to one of the logical lanes;

wherein, for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for subsequently allocating the data in the logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane by mixing the data portions such that the interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane has clusters of sequential bits of a same symbol.

3. The OTL of claim 2 , wherein:

the distribution circuitry is further configured for performing lane rotation on each frame boundary such that sequential frames differ in terms of how the data portions are distributed to the logical lanes.

4. The OTL of claim 2 , wherein

for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for mixing the data portions without mixing any data portion containing FAS (Frame Alignment Signal) information.

5. The OTL of claim 4 , wherein the allocation circuitry is configured for mixing the data portions as a function of where the FAS information is located.

6. The OTL of claim 4 , wherein:

for each physical lane, the allocating circuitry is configured for reducing occurrence of sequential bits of different symbols in the interleaved data for transmission without manipulating placement of any bits corresponding to the FAS information.

7. The OTL of claim 2 , wherein the communication channel has four physical lanes for transmitting data, and wherein:

the distribution circuitry is configured for distributing each data portion in round robin to one of twenty logical lanes, the twenty logical lanes comprising four sets of five logical lanes with each set corresponding to a respective one of the physical lanes;

for each physical lane, the multiplexor is configured for bit-interleaving data from the five logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane.

8. The OTL of claim 7 , wherein the OTL is configured for transmitting data frames having 1020 16-byte data portions.

9. The OTL of claim 8 , wherein:

for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for allocating the data in the five logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane in accordance with Table 4, column “OTL4.4 of FIG. 11 ” or Table 5, column “OTL4.4 of FIG. 11 ”.

10. The OTL of claim 8 , wherein:

for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for allocating the data in the five logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane in accordance with Table 6, column “OTL4.4 of FIG. 14 ” or Table 7, column “OTL4.4 of FIG. 14 ”.

11. The OTL of claim 2 , wherein the communication channel has ten physical lanes for transmitting data, and wherein:

the distribution circuitry is configured for distributing each data portion in round robin to one of twenty logical lanes, the twenty logical lanes comprising ten sets of two logical lanes with each set corresponding to a respective one of the physical lanes;

for each physical lane, the multiplexor is configured for bit-interleaving data from the two logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane.

12. The OTL of claim 11 , wherein the OTL is configured for transmitting data frames having 1020 16-byte data portions.

13. An OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) configured for receiving data over a communication channel having at least one physical lane for receiving data, the OTL comprising:

for each physical lane, a demultiplexer for bit de-interleaving data from the physical lane to logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane thereby generating de-interleaved data in each logical lane, wherein the de-interleaved data has clusters of sequential bits of different symbols;

recovery circuitry for recovering the data by mixing the de-interleaved data in order to achieve contiguous bits for each symbol.

14. The OTL of claim 13 , wherein the recovery circuitry is configured for:

identifying each logical lane by using LLM (Logical Lane Marker) information; and

deskewing and reordering the logical lanes for reassembling an original frame.

15. The OTL of claim 13 , wherein the communication channel has four physical lanes for transmitting data, and wherein the logical lanes comprises four sets of five logical lanes with each set corresponding to a respective one of the physical lanes.

16. An OTN (Optical Transport Network) system comprising:

an OTN backplane having physical lanes;

a first OTN device comprising an OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) according to claim 1 for transmitting data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

17. The OTN system of claim 16 , further comprising:

a second OTN device comprising an OTL according to claim 13 for receiving data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

18. The OTN system of claim 17 , wherein:

the second OTN device further comprises an OTL according to claim 1 for transmitting data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane; and

the first OTN device further comprises an OTL according to claim 13 for receiving data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

19. An OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) configured for transmitting data over a communication channel having at least one physical lane for transmitting data, the OTL comprising:

for each physical lane, allocation circuitry configured for allocating data in logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane, the data comprising data portions containing FAS (Frame Alignment Signal) information and data portions devoid of FAS information; and

for each physical lane, a multiplexer configured for bit-interleaving the data from the logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane into interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane;

wherein, for each physical lane, the allocation circuitry is configured for mixing the data portions devoid of FAS information without mixing the data portions containing FAS information.

20. The OTL of claim 19 , wherein the allocation circuitry is configured for mixing the data portions devoid of FAS information as a function of where the FAS information is located in the data.

21. An OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) configured for receiving data over a communication channel having at least one physical lane for receiving data, the OTL comprising:

for each physical lane, a demultiplexer for bit de-interleaving data from the physical lane to logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane thereby generating de-interleaved data in each logical lane, the de-interleaved data comprising data portions containing FAS (Frame Alignment Signal) information and data portions devoid of FAS information;

recovery circuitry for recovering the data by mixing the data portions devoid of FAS information to achieve contiguous bits for symbols without mixing the portions containing FAS information.

22. The OTL of claim 21 , wherein the recovery circuitry is configured for mixing the data portions devoid of FAS information as a function of where the FAS information is located in the de-interleaved data.

23. An OTN (Optical Transport Network) system comprising:

an OTN backplane having physical lanes;

a first OTN device comprising an OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) according to claim 19 for transmitting data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

24. The OTN system of claim 23 , further comprising:

a second OTN device comprising an OTL according to claim 21 for receiving data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

25. The OTN system of claim 24 , wherein:

the second OTN device further comprises an OTL according to claim 19 for transmitting data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane; and

the first OTN device further comprises an OTL according to claim 21 for receiving data over the physical lanes of the OTN backplane.

26. An OTL (Optical Channel Transport Lane) configured for transmitting data over a communication channel having at least one physical lane for transmitting data, the OTL comprising:

for each physical lane, allocation means for allocating data in logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane; and

for each physical lane, means for bit-interleaving the data from the logical lanes corresponding to the physical lane into interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane;

wherein, for each physical lane, the allocation means is configured for allocating the data such that the interleaved data for transmission over the physical lane has clusters of sequential bits of a same symbol;

wherein, for each physical lane, the allocation means is configured for mixing data portions without mixing any data portion containing FAS (Frame Alignment Signal) information.