Dsc Communications Corporation

Raymond L Hogg

Felix V Diaz

W Keith Brewer

Kathy Ann Thompson

Daniel J Raz

Gregory L Langdon

A multi-service switch for a telecommunications network (10) is provided. A system bus (13) has an ingress portion (14) and an egress portion (16). The system bus (13) is operable to carry data in a plurality of time slots. A system bus control (11) comprises a head-of-bus control (12) having an output. The output of the head-of-bus control is coupled to the ingress portion (14) of the system bus (13). The system bus control (11) also comprises a tail-of-bus control (15) coupled to the head-of-bus control (12). The tail-of-bus control (15) has an input coupled to the egress portion (16) of the system bus (13). A plurality of interface modules (28.sub.1 through 28.sub.n) each have an input and an output. The input of each interface module (28.sub.1 through 28.sub.n) is coupled to the egress portion (16) of the system bus (13), and the output of each interface module is coupled to the ingress portion (14) of the system bus (13). An ingress/egress bridge (18) has an input and an output. The input of the ingress/egress bridge (18) is coupled to the ingress portion (14) of the system bus (13), and the output of the ingress/egress bridge (18) is coupled to the egress portion (16) of the system bus (13).

Multi-service switch for a telecommunications network

Three data formats for telecommunication networks are provided. One format is an asynchronous packet bus overlay datagram format (122) constructed to include an internal datagram header (140) and a datagram payload (141) concatenated with the internal datagram header. The internal datagram header comprises a destination address (146), a weighted age (152), and a source address (14). A second format is a wideband bus overlay format (126) comprising three header octets and a plurality of payload octets such that the data is formatted into one of a plurality of industry standard isochronous wideband data formats. A third format is a narrow band bus overlay format (124) comprising a plurality of signaling octets, a plurality of octets concatenated with the first plurality of signaling octets to hold data, and a common system multiframe structure.

Data formats for telecommunications networks

A bus arbitration method for telecommunications switching is provided that receives a plurality of requests of a plurality of priorities for an available asynchronous bus time slot, wherein each request has a weighted age. The plurality of requests are ordered according to the weighted age of each request and access to the bus time slot is granted to a request having the highest weighted age. Further, a bus arbitration method for telecommunications switching is provided that generates a plurality of requests of a plurality of priorities for each of a plurality of packets needing an available bus time slot. An amount of time during which each request is pending is measured. The plurality of requests for the available asynchronous bus time slot are sent to a centralized asynchronous slot arbiter operable to grant access to one of the plurality of packets corresponding to a request having a highest weighted age. The packet for which access is granted may then be placed in the available ingress asynchronous bus time slot by the interface module receiving the grant.

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Carrollton, TX, United States of America

Raymond L Hogg