Circuit arrangement for adjusting the bit rates of two signals

Abstract

A circuit for adjusting the bit rates of two signals is necessary for plesiochronous multiplexers, for example, to bring the plesiochronous signals, which are to be combined to one digital signal of the next higher hierarchy, to the same bit rate. For this purpose, the circuit arrangement comprises an elastic store (4) as well as a justification decision circuit (15, 16). In order that a circuit having such features can be used for bit rates of the order of 140 Mbit/s and yet can be arranged largely in CMOS technology, the bit clocks of the first and second signals are reduced at the ratio of 1:n. Furthermore, a serial-to-parallel converter (2) converts bit groups of n serial bits of a first signal into bit groups of n parallel bits, which are written in groups into the elastic store (4) and are also read out in groups. The parallel bit groups read out are applied to a controllable selection matrix (5) having n outputs, which transmits n selected bits of more than one bit group to n outputs. The justification decision circuit (15, 16) controls the reading operation of the elastic store (4) and also the selection matrix (5).