Abstract: Transporting an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) stream through a bonding group involves properly splitting the stream into sub-streams to fit into individual member bearer's bandwidth at the transmit end, and properly merging the sub-streams to reconstruct the stream at the receive end. At the receive end, the cells can be put together in the proper sequence in a process of cell aggregation based on attached sequence numbers. Once the stream is re-constructed, the attached sequence numbers are replaced by the original field contents of the ATM headers. Methods of cell aggregation are described that assist the bonding scheme in working efficiently.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for optimizing the utilization and the delivery of multiple applications over a Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL). The apparatus detects the type of media being delivered in each Protocol Data Unit (PDU) over a Digital Subscriber Loop (DSL) and switches or otherwise directs the PDU to a Virtual Circuit (VC) on the DSL best suited for that type of media. The apparatus allows for the delivery of multiple applications to the Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) requiring VCs of differing profile or characteristic. Another aspect of the present invention includes an apparatus and method for dynamically re-partitioning the bandwidth allocated to each VC of differing profile on the DSL, for the purposes of optimizing and utilizing all available bandwidth on the DSL.

Abstract: Transporting an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) stream through a bonding group involves properly splitting the stream into sub-streams to fit into individual member bearer's bandwidth at the transmit end, and properly merging the sub-streams to reconstruct the stream at the receive end. At the receive end, the cells can be put together in the proper sequence in a process of cell aggregation based on attached sequence numbers. Once the stream is re-constructed, the attached sequence numbers are replaced by the original field contents of the ATM headers. Methods of cell aggregation are described that assist the bonding scheme in working efficiently.