A method and apparatus for transceiving multiple service data from
multiple communication services to a SONET/SDH communication system or
network is provided. A SONET/SDH universal framer (SURF) bidirectionally
provides communication between a SONET/SDH communication port and
multiple service communication ports using their native data format. A
provisioning register stores provisioning information describing the
communication system and the communication ports. A SONET/SDH byte engine
processes complex hierarchical SONET/SDH frames storing intermediate
states when it changes to process a byte of data of a different STS-1
equivalent frame in a SONET/SDH STS-N frame. A service byte engine
processes the multitude of service data formats and generally its
intermediate states are restored, processed, and saved when it changes to
process a different data stream or a different frame of data of a given
service. An elastic storage means allows the SONET/SDH byte engine and
the service byte engine to operate independent of one another in an
asynchronous mode.