Hybrid type telephony system

• US 20060182097A1
• Filed: 04/12/2006
• Published: 08/17/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Juniper Networks Incorporated
• Inventors: Tanimura, Takuji
• Granted Patent: US 7,586,906 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 370/356
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/64 Hybrid switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6472 Internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6481 Speech, voice

Abstract

A hybrid type telephony system capable of establishing a connection between conventional type telephone sets contained in an exchange unit and LAN type telephone sets contained in an IP network, the system comprising: a gateway circuit connected between the exchange unit and the IP network and performing voice data format conversion, and a central control unit connected to the LAN of the IP network for establishing a communication path to the exchange unit via a control bus, controlling switching of IP packets of the IP network, managing IP address information of the LAN type telephone sets and the gateway circuit via the LAN, and controlling connection between the LAN type telephone sets and connection between the LAN type telephone sets and the gateway circuit.

Claims

1-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A hybrid telephony system comprising:

a first switch configured to perform time division switching of signals;

a second switch configured to switch packets from a source to a destination;

a gateway configured to convert signals to packets and forward the packets to the second switch, and convert packets from the second switch to signals and forward the signals to the first switch; and

a control unit configured to control the first switch, the second switch, and the gateway via a control bus.

15. The hybrid telephony system of claim 14 wherein the first switch performs time division switching of voice signals from or to a first type of telephone set.

16. The hybrid telephony system of claim 15 wherein the second switch switches packets from or to a second type of telephone set, where the first type of telephone set is different than the second type of telephone set.

17. The hybrid telephony system of claim 16 wherein the first type of telephone set includes an analog telephone and the second type of telephone set includes a local area network (LAN) type telephone.

18. The hybrid telephony system of claim 14 wherein the first switch performs time division switching of signals for at least one analog telephone, and

wherein the second switch switches packets from or to a local area network (LAN) type telephone.

19. The hybrid telephony system of claim 14 wherein the control unit is configured to lookup an Internet Protocol (IP) address of a destination local area network (LAN) type telephone.

20. A system comprising:

a first switch configured to forward voice calls to at least one analog telephone;

a second switch configured to forward voice calls to at least one local area network (LAN) type telephone device; and

a control unit configured to control the first switch and the second switch via a control bus to allow for voice calls between the at least one analog telephone and the at least one LAN type telephone device.

21. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a gateway coupled to the control unit via the bus and configured to convert signals to packets and forward the packets to the second switch, and convert packets from the second switch to signals and forward the signals to the first switch.

22. The system of claim 20 wherein the control unit is configured to control establishment of connections for voice calls between the at least one LAN type telephone device and another LAN type telephone device, connections for voice calls between the at least one analog telephone and another analog telephone, and connections for voice calls between the at least one LAN type telephone device and the at least one analog telephone.

23. The system of claim 20 further comprising:

a subscriber circuit connected to the second switch and the at least one analog telephone and configured to pass voice signals between the second switch and the at least one analog telephone.

24. A device comprising:

a time-division switch configured to process voice calls to and from a first type of telephone set;

an Internet Protocol (IP) switch configured to process voice calls to and from a second type of telephone set; and

a central control unit connected to the time-division switch and the IP switch via a control bus and being configured to manage the time-division switch and the IP switch to allow for voice communications between the first type of telephone set and the second type of telephone set.

25. The device of claim 24 further comprising:

a gateway circuit configured to convert signals between the first type of telephone set and the second type of telephone set.

26. The device of claim 24 wherein the first type of telephone set includes an analog telephone and the second type of telephone set includes a local area network (LAN) type telephone set.

27. The device of claim 24 wherein, when managing, the central control unit is configured to:

look up an IP address of a destination second type of telephone set.

28. The device of claim 24 wherein the control unit includes a plurality of control units.

29. The device of claim 24 further comprising;

a maintenance and management terminal connected to the central control unit via the control bus, the maintenance and management terminal being configured to perform maintenance and management for the device.