The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Dec. 23, 1999
Nortel Networks Limited, St. Laurent, CA;
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for establishing dedicated local area network (LAN) connectivity between network elements (NEs) in an optical transmission network without using any of the payload transport capacity available. In order to provision dedicated LAN connections between NEs, the invention reallocates existing overhead functionality to provide dedicated bandwidth for LAN communications between NEs. At each NE, a respective LAN interface unit provides access to this dedicated bandwidth and allows LAN devices such as personal computers (PCs), servers and monitoring equipment to communicate across NEs of an optical transmission network without consuming any payload transport capacity available therein.