US Patent 7508846 Physical capacity aggregation system and method

Provided is a method and apparatus for segmenting packets into cells of variable sizes in order to facilitate the parallel transport of data symbols common to a single packet through a composite medium made up of a number of lanes. According to the invention the method of segmenting packets results in cell sizes that efficiently use the available capacity and minimize the complexity of any additional apparatus required in the receivers used to reassemble the packets from the variable-sized cells. Additionally, the invention could be advantageously combined with the Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) as defined in ITU-T G.7041/Y.1303 that was ratified December 2001.