Cisco Technology, Inc.

Dsc Communications Corporation

Alcatel USA Sourcing, L.p.

Alcatel USA

Thomas A Potter

Kenneth M Buckland

Riccardo G Dorbolo

Barry W Field

Soren Pedersen

R Douglas Howson

Martin Roberts

Earl B Manchester

Danny Thom

Jan C Hobbel

Charles R Dyer

Patrick K Walp

Daniel J Kerns

A rate adjustable backplane includes a set of switch slots configured to receive one or more switch cards forming a switch core and a plurality of line slots each configured to receive a line card. A low speed bus couples the line slots to the set of switch slots. A high speed bus also couples the line slots to the set of switch slots. Each line slot includes a low speed connector coupled to the low speed bus and a high speed connector coupled to the high speed bus. The low speed connector is adapted to receive a mating connector of a line card to establish a low speed communication connection between the line card and the switch core. The high speed connector is adapted to receive a mating connector of the line card to establish a high speed link between the line card and the switch core.

Rate adjustable backplane and method for a telecommunications node

A method for protection switching in a telecommunications network is provided that includes receiving a plurality of primary and secondary sub-streams. Each primary sub-stream corresponds to a redundant secondary sub-stream. Each sub-stream has an associated priority level. Protection switching is provided for the sub-streams based on the priority levels.

Method and system for protection switching in a telecommunications network

A bus for a telecommunications node includes a frame repeating at a defined interval and including a defined number of slots. Each slot includes an overhead portion identifying a type of traffic in the slot and a service traffic portion transporting traffic of the type. A first slot in at least one frame transports in the service traffic portion asynchronous traffic and routing information for the asynchronous traffic in the telecommunications node. A second slot in the frame transports synchronous traffic in the service traffic portion and has a location in the frame associated with routing information for the synchronous traffic in the telecommunications node.

Method and system for transporting synchronous and asynchronous traffic on a bus of a telecommunications node

A switch card for telecommunications node includes a shared memory operable to store traffic channels. A time slot interchanger (TSI) is coupled to a first bus and to the shared memory. The TSI is operable based on predefined switching instructions to access the shared memory to stored traffic channels received from the first bus and to retrieve traffic channels for transmission on the first bus. An asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switch is operable to switch a traffic cell based on header information in the traffic cell. A traffic converter is operable to convert traffic channels retrieved from the shared memory to traffic cells for processing by a bus fuser and to convert traffic cells to traffic channels for storage in the shared memory. The bus fuser is coupled to the shared memory through the traffic converter, the ATM switch, and a second bus. The bus fuser is operable to receive a traffic cell from each one of the traffic converter, the ATM switch, and the second bus and to route the traffic cell to another one of the traffic converter, the ATM switch, and the second bus.

Fused switch core and method for a telecommunications node

A transport interface (,) provides add drop multiplex functionality and termination requirements for the transportation of network traffic. The transport interface (,) includes high speed units (,), broadband interfaces (,), and SONET formatters (,). Each high speed unit (,), broadband interface (,), and SONET formatter has redundant protection pairs (A and B). The high speed units (,), broadband interfaces (,), and SONET formatters (,) communicate with each other by in-band datalinks (,). The redundant protection pairs (A and B) communicate with one another by protection pair datalinks (,). The in-band datalinks (,) and the protection pair datalinks (,) provide protection switching within the transport interface (,) in the event of component failure. The in-band datalinks (,) are generated out of available or consumed bytes within either a section overhead (,) or a line overhead (,) of SONET OC-N frame (,). The protection pair datalinks (,) provide communication capability over a common control communications interface. The in-band datalinks (,) and the protection pair data links (,) work together to provide a smooth transition from one component to another in the event of a protection switch.

Transport interface for performing protection switching of telecommunications traffic

A data packet transmission system is disclosed. The system comprises a processor (178) having a memory block (202) and a communication controller (204). The processor (178) stores a data packet (205), a buffer descriptor array (206), and a header (208) in the memory block (202). The buffer descriptor array (206) has a first plurality of elements (206b, 206d, 206f, 206h, 206i), each indicating a respective segment (205a-205e) of the data packet (206), and a second plurality of elements (206a, 206c, 206e, 206g), each indicating the header (208). The processor (178) supplies the location of the buffer descriptor array (206) to the communication controller (204). In response, the communication controller (204) transmits a plurality of cells (222, 224, 226, 228), each cell including the header (208) and a segment of the data packet (205), to a destination system (180).

Data packet transmission system and method

A transport interface (10) provides add drop multiplex functionality and termination requirements for the transportation of network traffic. The transport interface (10) includes high speed units (12), broadband interfaces (16), and SONET formatters (18). Each high speed unit (12), broadband interface (16), and SONET formatter has redundant protection pairs (A and B). The high speed units (12), broadband interfaces (16), and SONET formatters (18) communicate with each other by in-band datalinks (40). The redundant protection pairs (A and B) communicate with one another by protection pair datalinks (42). The in-band datalinks (40) and the protection pair datalinks (42) provide an effective means for performing protection switching within the transport interface (10) in the event of component failure. The in-band datalinks (40) are generated out of available or consumed bytes within either a section overhead (32) or a line overhead (34) of SONET OC-N frame (30). The protection pair datalinks (42) provide communication capability over a common control communications interface. The in-band datalinks (40) and the protection pair data links (42) work together to provide a smooth transition from one component to another in the event of a protection switch.

Transport interface for performing protection switching of

A multi-rate transmission system (10) includes a receive section (12) and a transmit section (14). The receive section includes a receiver (16), a clock recovery unit (18), and a serial to parallel converter (20) all operating at a first clock rate (M). The receiver (16) also has a frame recovery unit (22) that operates at any of a plurality of clock rates, including the first clock rate (M) and a second clock rate (M/n). When the frame recovery unit operates at the first clock rate (M), frame information received by the receiver section (12) has unique bits occupying each bit position associated with each clock pulse of the first clock rate (M). When the frame recovery unit (22) operates at the second clock rate (M/n), each unique bit of the frame information occupies a number of bit positions according to a ratio of the first clock rate (M) to the second clock rate (M/n). Similar operation occurs with respect to a frame formatter (30) in the transmit section (14) of the multi-rate transmission system (10).

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Petaluma, CA, United States of America

Thomas A Potter