Bell Communications Research, Inc.

Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc.

Douglas P Clark

Kamran Sistanizadeh

Bahman Amin-Salehi

John A Bigham

Regina S Lightfoot

Ulric E Arthur

Bill Goodman

Greg Brenner

Edward C Mihm

Masuma Ahmed

Shin-ichiro Hayano

An access subnetwork provides broadcast access transport as well as selective allocation of resources for interactive communications sessions dedicated to individual end users. The access subnetwork has specified broadcast and interactive service interfaces, both for communications to and from an information provider and for communication to and from customer premises equipment. An Access Subnetwork Controller provides a single point of control contact within the access subnetwork. Any other subnetwork (typically an element of a higher level control subnetwork) needing a control function in the access subnetwork always sends the request for that function to the Access Subnetwork Controller. The primary responsibility of the Access Subnetwork Controller is to control resources, provide requested resources and monitor the use of resources within in the realm of the access subnetwork. The Access Subnetwork Controller functions essentially in a similar manner to provide every type of requested connection, whether the connection is for broadcast, pay-per-view or Interactive Multimedia Television (IMTV). Specifically, the Access Subnetwork Controller reserves and enables access subnetwork resources for a particular user connection and reports connections back to higher level control elements.

Access subnetwork controller for video dial tone networks

In advanced digital networks for providing selective point-to-point communications between subscriber's terminals and broadband server's equipment operated by a plurality of independent information service providers, routing through the network is controlled by functionality identified as a Level 1 Gateway. In an enhanced video dial tone network additionally providing an array of broadcast services from multiple providers, the Level 1 Gateway also provides high level control over at least some of the broadcast services. The Level 1 Gateway will perform a variety of functions including communications port management of transmissions of information between subscribers and servers, processing of billing information and session management. The Level 1 Gateway generates menus of providers and broadcast services, either as a function of providers and services available through a particular portion of the network or in a customized fashion specified by individual subscribers. The Level 1 Gateway may also provide a PIN number functionality. The Level 1 Gateway is itself an interactive device in that subscribers can input information and receive display information from the Gateway to define or modify their own video dial tone service through the network.

Level 1 gateway for video dial tone networks

A system and method for operating a Broadband ISDN to support a viable virtual private network (VPN) service are attained by establishing a plurality of virtual path links connecting customer locations and broadband switching systems, by cross-connecting virtual channel links at the broadband switching systems to establish end-to-end virtual channel connections, and by policing both the input and output traffic only on the virtual path links. The egress policing function is attained through the use of the ingress policing processors by looping back one customer's traffic from an outgoing trunk into an input port on the broadband switching system.

System and method for providing egress policing for broadband virtual

Growing community of inventors

Middletown, NJ, United States of America

Douglas P Clark