Patent attributes
The disclosure presents techniques for merging multiple data flows in a network such as a Passive Optical Network (PON). The PON comprises an interface module and network nodes connected to the interface module via an optical fiber link. Each network node further serves client devices. The client devices request multiple data flows, requiring the interface module to serve multiple data flows to a network node for delivery to the devices. The interface module merges received data flows to permit multiple flows to be processed by a single segmentation and reassembly (SAR) engine, reducing hardware cost and complexity within the node. However, subunits associated with different data flows within a merged data flow are not interleaved with one another. Instead, the subunits associated with an original unit of information are transmitted contiguously within the merged data flow, facilitating identification and reassembly of the subunits for a particular microflow.
