METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING ENGINEERING ORDERWIRE INFORMATION OVER SYNCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS NETWORK

摘要

A synchronous digital communications network comprises a plurality of node devices (301, 302, 304, 305) linked by a plurality of link devices, which communicate by means of an optical aggregate. An engineering orderwire facility is provided between node devices, the facility comprising a plurality of data terminals (306), which can be connected directly to individual node devices for communicating across the optical aggregate. The data terminals perform packetization, de-packetization and compression of engineering orderwire data, and operate over an OSI protocol stack.