System and method for transporting time-division multiplexed communications through a packet-switched access network
A system and method are provided for providing access communications between customer locations and a core network service edge. Access flows are handled as carrier-tagged flows through a packet switched network comprising network elements that interpret and manipulate carrier tag values associated with traffic-bearing data frames. Time-division multiplexed (TDM) signals are transported as carrier-tagged flows between customer premise equipment that communicates using TDM signals and a service edge that communicates using TDM signals.
1. A method for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the method comprising:
receiving from the customer premise equipment a first communication according to a first time-division multiplexed signal format;
converting the first communication to a carrier-tagged communication, that is associated with a carrier tag value;
sending the carrier-tagged communication as a packet-switched communication along a packet-switched communication path based on the carrier tag value;
converting the carrier-tagged communication to a second communication according to a second time-division multiplexed signal format, the first time-division multiplexed signal format being different from the second time-division multiplexed signal format; and
sending the second communication to the service edge.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a plesiochronous digital hierarchy signal format.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.
4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a plesiochronous digital hierarchy signal format.
5. The method of claim 1 wherein the second time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.
6. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication comprises ethernet communications.
7. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication includes at least one of a packet-switched network tunnel, a service emulation instance, a pseudowire, a logical networking tagged path or a virtual local area network (VLAN) circuit.
8. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication is transported using a third time-division multiplexed signal format.
9. The method of claim 8 wherein the third time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
at a network element, affecting a routing of the carrier-tagged communication responsive to the carrier tag value associated therewith.
11. The method of claim 1 , where the packet-switched communications path is configured for at least one of Ethernet traffic, frame relay traffic, asynchronous transfer mode traffic, or high level data link control traffic.
12. A system for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the system comprising:
a time-division multiplexing fabric to route time-division multiplexed communications;
a packet fabric to route packet-switched communications; and
at least one time-division multiplexing to packet conversion switch to convert a first communication between a time-division multiplexed signal format and a packet-switched format based on the communication being associated with a carrier tag value;
wherein the packet-switched communication is sent along a packet-switched communication path based on the carrier tag value;
the carrier-tagged packet-switched communication is converted to a second communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format different from the time-division multiplexed signal format of the first communication; and
the second communication is sent to the service edge.
13. The system of claim 12 , where communications between the time division multiplexing fabric and the packet fabric are routed based on the carrier tag value.
14. The system of claim 12 , further comprising a plurality of ports configured to support different types of connections.
15. The system of claim 14 , where the different types of connections include at least one of an optical link, an electrical link, or a wireless link.
16. The system of claim 12 , further comprising:
a plurality of ports configured to support at least two of:
an Ethernet connection,
a time-division multiplexed connection,
a frame relay connection,
an asynchronous transfer mode connection, or
a high-level data link control connection.
17. A method comprising:
receiving a first communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format, the first communication being associated with a first carrier tag value;
converting the first communication to a packet-switched communication based on the first communication being associated with the first carrier tag value, where the conversion of the first communication to the packet-switched communication is performed at one of a building aggregation system, a layer 2 switch, a service emulation instance terminator, or a service edge;
sending the packet-switched communication along a packet-switched communications path;
receiving a second communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format, the second communication being associated with a second carrier tag value; and sending the second communication without converting the second communication to a packet-switched communication.
18. The method of claim 17 , where the first carrier tag value includes a VLAN value.
19. The method of claim 17 , where the first carrier tag value includes a pseudowire value.