Abstract: An IP address assignment method including assigning a chassis serial number to a node during manufacture, generating an array of unique IP addresses composed using the chassis serial number, and assigning a unique IP address from the array to each interface associated with the node.

Abstract: A method and system for transporting SONET signals over an optical telecommunications network, the method including generating a ComBus signal, including payload data, J1/C1 and synchronous payload envelope (SPE), per SONET path, Smart extracting of data from the ComBus signal (J1 detection and N/P detection), gathering the payload data and J1 into short packets, adding a packet header to each short packet, transporting the short packets to a destination, and generating C1 and SPE at the destination so as to reconstruct the SONET signals out of the ComBus signal.