Abstract: To automatically discover the port connections for all nodes in a network, a master node generates a predetermined optical signal and transmits the predetermined optical signal to a neighboring node, which signal identifies the port on which the master node transmitted the predetermined signal. The recipient transmits a reply signal to the predecessor node and to the master node via a control channel, which identifies a port on which the predetermined optical signal was received by the neighboring node. By successively repeating this process in a methodical manner, the master node can discover all of the port interconnections in the optical network. Also each node can discover all its port interconnections to its neighbors. Moreover, by selecting controlling the state (e.g., terminate, open) of the ports of the non-master nodes in the network, the master node can control which nodes receive the predetermined signal, thereby ensuring proper port discovery.

Abstract: A simplified data link protocol which may be implemented in a very high-speed transmission system, e.g., SONET, processes a datagram received from an IP facility according to QoS considerations and scrambles a datagram before it is again scrambled by a transmission system, e.g., a SONET transmitter, to ensure that the pattern of a user's data does not match the transmission scrambling pattern. The data link protocol scrambler also employs a novel synchronization scheme. We also use a pointer system which identifies the location of a datagram in a frame to eliminate flags and the need to process user data to ensure that it does not contain and a boundary flag.