The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 10, 1996
Filed:
Jan. 31, 1995
John W Darr, Jr, Great Falls, VA (US);
Bahman Amin-Salehi, Washington, DC (US);
Lisa M Conoscenti, Laurel, MD (US);
Amos Lucas, Baltimore, MD (US);
Bell Atlantic Network Services, Inc., Arlington, VA (US);
Abstract
An arrangement for transporting digital broadband data output in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) cell streams from a plurality of video information service providers (VIPs) to a plurality of subscribers. A digital broadband network is adapted to receive a plurality of ATM streams from VIPs via optical fibers having a predetermined capacity. A plurality of receivers corresponding to the optical fibers output ATM cells from the optical fibers having active ATM cell streams to an ATM edge device having input ports corresponding to the predetermined capacity of the optical fibers. The ATM edge device grooms the ATM cells by rejecting unauthorized cells and idle cells that do not carry information, and maps the remaining ATM cells to output ports having a lower predetermined capacity than the plurality of optical fibers coupled to the receivers. The mapped ATM cells are assigned translated VPI/VCI identifers and are combined onto common signal paths for transport via optical fibers, thereby maximizing the capacity and efficiency of the network. The network also enables subscribers to set up fully interactive broadband sessions with selected VIPs via level 1 and level 2 gateways between the subscriber and the selected VIP.