A communication network comprises a first digital subscriber line (DSL) unit having a plurality of application ports and at least one DSL port; and a second DSL unit having a plurality of application ports and at least one DSL port; wherein the first DSL unit is communicatively coupled to the second DSL unit via a DSL pair coupled to the at least one DSL port in each of the first and second DSL units; and wherein each of the first and second DSL units are configured to receive a signal of a first interface format over one of the plurality of application ports, extract timeslots from the received first interface format signal, transmit the timeslots over the at least one DSL port, and use timeslots received over the at least one DSL port to generate at least one second signal of a dissimilar interface format.