Abstract: A router in a network comprises an interface system for receiving packets and has a plurality of channels and a plurality of framing service engines. The router is configured to assign the channels to individual framing service engines for framing services. The router has a channel manager for performing the assignments, and the channel manager is configured to receive and use data about the framing service engines. The router further comprises a framing memory for buffering communication between the interface system and the plurality of framing service engines. At least one framing service engine is configured to frame packets and at least one framing service engine is configured to deframe packets, and the framing service engines may be configured to operate on AHDLC packets. The router can be used with an interface system that comprises a plurality of network interfaces terminating a plurality of point to point links.

Abstract: A telecommunication bridge system uses synchronized arbitration in a portion of a frame of a Radio Frequency (RF) subsystem and is transparent to Ethernet layer protocols and Ethernet-type packets in order to increase bandwidth utilization and effectively extend Ethernet networks to metropolitan-area-wide application. The telecommunication bridge system comprises an enhanced Ethernet network interface subsystem coupled to a conventional Ethernet medium and a control subsystem including an RF modem, in turn coupled to a frame synchronized RF medium in a metropolitan-sized network. On one side the control subsystem emulates all Ethernet layer protocols and on the other side conducts a prioritized arbitration scheme during only a portion of a time division multiplexed frame, the remainder of the frame for carrying a payload of unmodified packets to other bridges.