System and method for centrally-managing switching functions

Abstract

A centrally-managed switch for interconnecting a plurality of digital signals through a plurality of selectable switch ports and controlled by a central management unit includes a cross-connect having a plurality of plesiochronous primary rate signal ports for receiving a plurality of plesiochronous primary rate signals, each plesiochronous primary rate signal comprising a plurality of channels, the cross-connect operable to switch ones of the channels of an originating plesiochronous primary rate signal to a destination plesiochronous primary rate signal. The invention further comprises an add/drop multiplexer comprising a plurality of synchronous primary rate signal ports coupled to the second plurality of plesiochronous primary rate signal ports of the cross-connect and operable to receive a plurality of synchronous high-speed signals, each synchronous high-speed signal comprising a plurality of synchronous primary rate signals, the add/drop multiplexer operable to remove ones of the synchronous primary rate signals from an originating synchronous high-speed signal and to add synchronous primary rate signals to a destination high speed synchronous signal. The cross-connect and add/drop multiplexer receive commands from the central management unit, the central management unit operable to generate commands to configure the switch for switching of data between synchronous high speed signals at a channel level in the cross-connect, and to generate commands to configure the switch for insertion of data from an originating plesiochronous primary rate signal into a destination synchronous high-speed signal.