A method of encapsulating TDM data into individual data packets for transmission across a packet network includes delineating the TDM data into one or more signaling multiframes, wherein each signaling multiframe includes one period of a periodic signaling pattern. The method also includes appending a header that is associated with the individual data packets to each of the signaling multiframes of TDM data. Further, a method of selecting the number of multiframes of TDM data in the data packet includes calculating the efficiency of the data packet as a function of the number of multiframes, and selecting the number of multiframes so that the efficiency of the data packet increases exponentially as a number of time-slots in the TDM data increases.