3com Corporation

Bell Telephone Laboratories

At&t Information Systems Inc.

Quintum Technologies, Inc.

American Telephone and Telegraph, Co.

Madge Networks (new Jersey) Inc.

Rajiv Bhatia

Siuling C Zhang

C Paul Douglas

Timothy R Thornton

Joseph George Kneuer

Daniel M Brennan

Ki Choon Suh

Jyh-Ming J Wang

Tayseer M Elhindi

Suiling C Zhang

Jeffrey W Reedy

Cheng T Chen

Henry S McDonald

Michael Harmon

Kenneth Araujo

Kuang-Shin Lin

David R Johnson

Donald B Grust

Randall G Banton

David A Poppe

Matthew Sun

Richard T Wurth

Gregory H Stypko

Siuling Zhang

Roderick Randall

A LAN modem permits unambiguous routing for multiple workstations located on a LAN to each gain access through the LAN modem to any one of a number of different remote servers located on a number of different remote networks using a combination of public port number and public address of the workstation. There are instances where sessions are changed between the same workstation/server. This changing of sessions changes the public port numbers associated with each session, which destroys the above unambiguous routing, since the combination of a public destination IP address and a private destination port number is no longer the same unique value contained in an address translation table of the LAN modem. A four step hierarchical procedure is provided in which the LAN modem determines which workstation the packet is to be routed based upon value of fields stored in the network address translation (NAT) table or value of fields stored in a static table. The NAT table or static table entries are compared to the values of fields stored in the packet header.

Apparatus and methods for determining the correct workstation within a LAN for a LAN modem to route a packet

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for a telephony gateway intended for use, e.g., paired use, at opposite ends of a data network connection, in conjunction with at each end, e.g., a private branch exchange (PBX) for automatically routing telephone calls, e.g., voice, data and facsimile, between two peer PBXs over either a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a data network, based on, among other aspects, cost considerations for handling each such call and called directory numbers, monitoring quality of service (QoS) then provided through the data network and switching (&ldquo;auto-switching&rdquo;) such calls back and forth between the PSTN and the data network, as needed, in response to dynamic changes in the QoS such that the call is carried over a connection then providing a sufficient QoS.

Application for a voice over IP (VoIP) telephony gateway and methods for use therein

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for a telephony gateway intended for use, e.g., paired use, at opposite ends of a data network connection, in conjunction with at each end, e.g., a private branch exchange (PBX) for automatically routing telephone calls, e.g., voice, data and facsimile, between two peer PBXs over either a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a data network, based on, among other aspects, cost considerations for handling each such call and called directory numbers, monitoring quality of service (QoS) then provided through the data network and switching (&ldquo;auto-switching&rdquo;) such calls back and forth between the PSTN and the data network, as needed, in response to dynamic changes in the QoS such that the call is carried over a connection then providing a sufficient QoS. To support auto-switching, the apparatus embeds, using call independent signaling, certain call-specific information, as non-standard data, within various conventional H.323 messages that transit between the paired gateways. Furthermore, for added local redundancy, this apparatus utilizes peered border elements within an H.323 administrative domain.

okApparatus for a voice over IP (voIP) telephony gateway and methods for use therein

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem that is suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router having a self-contained network hub for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations, to each other through a local area network (LAN) and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. Advantageously, to facilitate and simplify its configuration, the LAN modem automatically adapts itself to a current network environment of a workstation connected thereto, via the LAN, and then communicates with that workstation through a browser executing thereat to obtain configuration information from a user situated at the workstation.

Apparatus and methods for use therein for an ISDN LAN modem utilizing

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem (300) (and various aspects thereof) that is particularly, though not exclusively, suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router (305) having a self-contained network hub (340) for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations (10), to each other through a local area network (LAN) and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. Advantageously, to facilitate and simplify its configuration, the LAN modem automatically adapts itself to a current network environment of a workstation connected thereto, via the LAN, and then communicates with that workstation through a browser executing thereat to obtain configuration information from a user situated at the workstation. Additionally, the LAN modem, through use of a multi-tiered routing hierarchy including both destination- and source-based routing, accommodates several modalities of network communication not heretofore possible in a conventional router. Specifically, several different workstations can simultaneously communicate through the LAN modem with a common remote network (60) and share a single user account at a corresponding network service provider.

Apparatus and methods for use therein for an ISDN LAN modem that selects

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem that is suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router having a self-contained network hub for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations, to each other through a local area network and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. The LAN modem includes an internal web server for autonomously constructing and downloading a web page, through dynamic selective insertion of predefined event-specific web page components into a web page template, to the workstation. The resulting page informs a user stationed at the workstation of a failure condition or other operational event that then occurred at the LAN modem. The specific page components inserted into the template are selected based on the particular failure condition or other operational event which occurred.

Web server for use in a LAN modem

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem (300) (and various aspects thereof) that is particularly, though not exclusively, suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router (305) having a self-contained network hub (340) for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations (10), to each other through a local area network (LAN) and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. Advantageously, to facilitate and simplify its configuration, the LAN modem automatically adapts itself to a current network environment of a workstation connected thereto, via the LAN, and then communicates with that workstation through a browser executing thereat to obtain configuration information from a user situated at the workstation. Additionally, the LAN modem, through use of a multi-tiered routing hierarchy including both destination- and source-based routing, accommodates several modalities of network communication not heretofore possible in a conventional router. Specifically, several different workstations can simultaneously communicate through the LAN modem with a common remote network (60) and share a single user account at a corresponding network service provider. Also, the LAN modem can simultaneously route packet traffic between multiple workstations on the LAN and different remote networks (60, 70) through different ISDN connections simultaneously existing between the LAN modem and corresponding network service providers.

Key-based technique for assuring and maintaining integrity of firmware

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem that is suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router having a self-contained network hub for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations, to each other through a local area network (LAN) and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. Through use of a multi-tiered routing hierarchy including both destination- and source-based routing, the LAN modem accommodates several modalities of network communication not heretofore possible in a conventional router. Specifically, several different workstations can simultaneously communicate through the LAN modem with a common remote network and share a single user account at a corresponding network service provider. Also, the LAN modem can simultaneously route packet traffic between multiple workstations on the LAN and different remote networks through different ISDN connections simultaneously existing between the LAN modem and corresponding network service providers.

Apparatus and methods for use therein for an ISDN LAN modem that

Apparatus, and accompanying methods for use therein, for an ISDN LAN modem that is suited for small user environments and which contains an internal ISDN router having a self-contained network hub for inter-connecting multiple network devices, such as workstations, to each other through a local area network and for permitting each of those devices to each gain access through the router to any one of a number of different remote networks. The LAN modem communicates network failure messages to a host workstation connected to the LAN by intercepting and responding to various DNS (domain name system) messages issued by that workstation and intended for a remote DNS server. Specifically, the LAN modem supplies its own network (IP) address in response to these messages, thus assuming a role of both a remote DNS server and a remote web server in order to implement a mechanism through which a fault-specific web page can be dynamically constructed and downloaded to the workstation for subsequent display, through a browser executing thereat. The page, once rendered, provides a specific message pertinent to the failure.

In a networked videoconferencing system, a receiver with a number of receiving stations receives calls from a number of different calling stations. To get appropriate bandwidth, two calls are connected at the same time from the calling station to one of the receiving stations. The receiver includes an access switch that uses information from the calling station to pair calls together so that two calls from one calling station are routed to the same receiving station, regardless of the order in which the calls are received by the access switch. The access switch can use one or a combination of routing methods including storing all pairs of incoming numbers in a table and/or by using comparisons of similar numbers.

Routing system and method for a teleconferencing system

A multi-stage time division switch interconnects a plurality of processors that individually communicate over one or more channels at various signalling rates. Any processor may initiate a call and request that a connection be set by the switch. The switch assigns one or more time slots to the call and gathers or distributes data over the interconnecting channels through the utilization of polling techniques, thereby creating a virtual circuit through the combination of a time division switch and a polled communication line.

Time slot polling arrangement for multiple stage time division switch

A multi-stage time division switch interconnects processors communicating over one or more channels on time division lines. One of the processors is designated as a common processor to provide the switching 'mapping' information for the various stages of the switch sending the switching information to the memory and logic of each switched stage over dedicated channels which include channels on the time division line emanating from the common processor and time division channels which pass through several switches until the memory of the applicable switch is accessed.

Growing community of inventors

Marlboro, NJ, United States of America

Rajiv Bhatia