Expandable digital switching network
First Claim
1. A distributed control switching network having a plurality of stages of switching elements for selectively interconnecting a plurality of data terminals over transmission paths thru said network established in response to digital command signals, and for transmitting frames of digitally encoded data in a plurality of channels from said data terminals over said established transmission paths, comprising:
- means for multiplexing said frames of data from said plurality of data terminals onto said transmission paths established by said digital command signals and in the channels designated by said command signals;
common transmission link means having said digital command signals and said digitally encoded data from said plurality of data terminals coupled thereto, said transmission link means being coupled to the first stage of said switching network;
means at each stage of said switching network responsive to said digital command signals for establishing said transmission paths stage-by-stage through said network such that said data is transmitted over said established transmission paths in the channels designated by said digital command signals; and
means associated with each of said switching elements at each stage of said network for phase-asynchronously coupling said data from switching elements in any stage of said network to switching elements in any other stage of said network over said established transmission paths and including means for phase-synchronization of said data.
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Abstract
A distributed control digital switching network is configured as a group switch having a plurality of stages of multiport single sided switching elements for selectively interconnecting a plurality of input terminals via the transmission paths established through the network by path selection control signals which are multiplexed on common transmission links to and through the network together with digitally encoded data from the terminals on common transmission paths such that data is received phase asynchronously at each stage of the network and is either coupled to a higher order stage of the network or folded back through the network by reflection to interconnect terminals switched by the network. The single-sided switching elements are selectively operable as single-sided or multi-sided in accordance with their position in the network.
105 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A distributed control switching network having a plurality of stages of switching elements for selectively interconnecting a plurality of data terminals over transmission paths thru said network established in response to digital command signals, and for transmitting frames of digitally encoded data in a plurality of channels from said data terminals over said established transmission paths, comprising:
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means for multiplexing said frames of data from said plurality of data terminals onto said transmission paths established by said digital command signals and in the channels designated by said command signals; common transmission link means having said digital command signals and said digitally encoded data from said plurality of data terminals coupled thereto, said transmission link means being coupled to the first stage of said switching network; means at each stage of said switching network responsive to said digital command signals for establishing said transmission paths stage-by-stage through said network such that said data is transmitted over said established transmission paths in the channels designated by said digital command signals; and means associated with each of said switching elements at each stage of said network for phase-asynchronously coupling said data from switching elements in any stage of said network to switching elements in any other stage of said network over said established transmission paths and including means for phase-synchronization of said data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. An expandable switching network comprising:
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a plurality of stages of multiport switching elements, each of said elements including; means for providing and maintaining time and space switching between any inlet port thereof and any outlet port thereof for frames of digitally encoded data in a plurality of channels; means for selectively reflecting phase asynchronous digitally encoded data entering any inlet port of said switching element back to any inlet port of said switching element; means for phase synchronizing said data frames on a time division multiplexed common transmission bus; and means for adapting each of said switching elements to either couple said phase synchronized digitally encoded data thru said switching element to another switching element in a higher numbered stage of said network or fold said digitally encoded data into the network by reflecting from a higher numbered stage to a lower numbered stage of said network. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. An expandable switching network comprising:
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a plurality of stages of multiport switching elements operable within said network as single sided or multisided, each port of each switching element including means for adapting said port for operation as an inlet or as an outlet and each of said switching elements including means to selectively reflect phase asynchronously received frames of digitally encoded traffic in a plurality of channels entering any inlet of any port of said switching element back to any inlet of any port of said switching element and to phase synchronously interconnect any outlet port of said switching element to any outlet port of said switching element; and means for selecting the inlets and outlets of each port of each of said switching elements for single sided or multisided operation within said network such that said inlet and outlet ports either selectively couple traffic through said switching element to a switching element in a higher numbered stage of said network or fold said traffic into the network by reflecting from a higher numbered stage to a lower numbered stage of said network.
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16. A method of interconnecting a plurality of data terminals thru a multistage distributed control digital switching network comprised of a plurality of switching elements at each stage, and having common transmission paths for data and control channels thru said network comprising the steps of:
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multiplexing data from said plurality of terminals and control signals, including at least switching path selection control signals, onto common transmission links coupled to the first stage of said network; setting up transmission paths thru said network in response to said control signals for switching phase asynchronously received data and said control signals from said terminals thru said network on said set-up transmission paths; and intercoupling said switching elements at each stage of said network for phase asynchronously coupling said data thru said network via said transmission paths set up through said network such that said data is phase resynchronized by each switching element and such that any of said terminals may be selectively interconnected by said set up transmission paths through said network to any other of said terminals.
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Specification