In one embodiment, a method comprises receiving by a gateway a plurality of data streams via respective data channels; identifying by the gateway, from among the data streams, selected data streams for aggregation based on the selected data streams each having a same encoding type and destined for a same destination gateway; and synchronizing the selected data streams by the gateway based on: successively sampling a prescribed group of bits from each of the selected data streams at a corresponding sampling time interval, aggregating the sampled groups of bits, having been sampled from the selected data streams at the corresponding sampling time interval, into an IP media packet payload, and outputting a corresponding IP media packet, containing the IP media packet payload for the corresponding sampling time interval, to the destination gateway via an IP network.