Atm exchange

Abstract

To provide all ATM exchange wherein more supple collective routing than VP routing is enabled without waste of VPI/VCI resources, an ATM exchange comprises: a VPI/VCI converter ( ) for retrieving a logic value, which is predetermined for each of individual connections to be dealt with individually and groups of connections to be dealt with collectively, according to an input VPI/VCI value; a mask-bit generator ( ) for generating a mask-bit pattern, a number of lower bits of the mask-bit pattern having logic '1' and other upper bits thereof having logic '0' when the mask-bit pattern concerns one of the groups of connections; and a VPI/VCI bit selector ( ) for generating an output VPI/VCI value to be written in the VPI/VCI field of the cell, by selecting logic of each bit of the output VPI/VCI value to have the same logic with a corresponding bit of the logic value outputted from the VPI/VCI converter ( ) when a corresponding bit of the mask-bit pattern has logic ‘0’, and to have the same logic with a corresponding bit of the input VPI/VCI value when a corresponding bit of the mask-bit pattern has logic ‘1’.