System for transferring stm calls through atm network by converting the stm calls to atm and vice versa at the edge nodes of atm network

Abstract

A method and apparatus for transferring data associated with synchronous transfer mode (STM) calls through an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network are described. The apparatus includes a voice interface control unit, a signaling interface and a TDM peripheral device associated with each edge node in the ATM network. The voice interface control unit controls the ingress and egress of STM calls to the network. The signaling interface sends and receives common channel signaling messages associated with calls originating in the STM network and passes message content to the voice interface control unit. The TDM peripheral device converts STM network and passes message content to the voice interface control unit. The TDM peripheral device converts STM calls to ATM cells, and vice versa. The method disclosed involves enabling the network interface controls at edge nodes in the ATM network with a capacity to receive, interpret and send common channel signaling messages associated with STM cells, while using native ATM signaling, such as P-NNI within the ATM network. The advantage is the ability to transfer STM data through an ATM network without modifying the ATM network itself. The ATM network can therefore be utilized to its fullest extent as a multi-service backbone network. SVC and cross-connect caching can also be used, which further enhances network performance and resource utilization.