Combined terminal adapter for SMDS and frame relay high speed data services
First Claim
1. A terminal adapter for interfacing a native frame relay DTE with an SMDS telecommunications network so that said SMDS network is transparent to said frame relay DTE, said terminal adapter comprising:
- a frame relay element for interfacing with said frame relay DTE;
an SMDS element for interfacing with said SMDS network; and
a protocol conversion and address translation element connected between said frame relay element and said SMDS element for converting the transmission protocol between frame relay and SMDS and for translating the addresses between frame relay and SMDS,said frame relay element comprising means for receiving frames of data from said frame relay DTE, each frame having a header and a trailer, means for parsing said frames of data, and means for passing said parsed frames of data to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said frame relay element further comprising means for receiving frames of data from said protocol conversion and address translation element and means for sending frames of data to said frame relay DTE;
said SMDS element comprising means for receiving cells of data from said SMDS network, each cell having a header and a trailer, means for verifying and removing said headers and trailers thereby forming shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for assembling a plurality of data blocks, and means for passing said assembled data blocks to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said SMDS element further comprising means for receiving assembled data blocks from said protocol conversion and address translation element, means for segmenting said assembled data blocks into said shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for adding a header and a trailer to each fixed-sized data block so as to form a plurality of cells of data, and means for sending said cells of data to said SMDS network; and
said protocol conversion and address translation element comprising means for sending and receiving frames of data to and from said frame relay element, means for sending and receiving assembled data blocks to and from said SMDS element, means for removing the frame relay headers and trailers from said received frames of data and for appending SMDS headers and trailers to said assembled data blocks to be sent to said SMDS element, means for removing the SMDS headers and trailers from said received assembled blocks of data and for appending frame relay headers and trailers to said frames of data to be sent to said frame relay element, means for translating frame relay addresses to SMDS addresses and means for translating SMDS addresses to frame relay addresses.
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A terminal adapter interfaces between a Data Terminating Equipment (DTE) and either a Frame Relay or a Switched Multimegabit Data Service (SMDS) telecommunications network so that the type of network over which the DTE is communicating is transparent to the DTE. The terminal adapter performs mapping from one protocol to another so that a native frame relay DTE can access an SMDS network and so that a native SMDS DTE can access a frame relay network. The address mapping method performed by the terminal adapter uses a parallel table look-up technique which reduces the chance of collision (when two or more addresses hash into the same table entry), eliminates the traditional comparison function to detect a collision, and eliminates the traditional pointer technique when a collision occurs.
83 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A terminal adapter for interfacing a native frame relay DTE with an SMDS telecommunications network so that said SMDS network is transparent to said frame relay DTE, said terminal adapter comprising:
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a frame relay element for interfacing with said frame relay DTE; an SMDS element for interfacing with said SMDS network; and a protocol conversion and address translation element connected between said frame relay element and said SMDS element for converting the transmission protocol between frame relay and SMDS and for translating the addresses between frame relay and SMDS, said frame relay element comprising means for receiving frames of data from said frame relay DTE, each frame having a header and a trailer, means for parsing said frames of data, and means for passing said parsed frames of data to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said frame relay element further comprising means for receiving frames of data from said protocol conversion and address translation element and means for sending frames of data to said frame relay DTE; said SMDS element comprising means for receiving cells of data from said SMDS network, each cell having a header and a trailer, means for verifying and removing said headers and trailers thereby forming shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for assembling a plurality of data blocks, and means for passing said assembled data blocks to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said SMDS element further comprising means for receiving assembled data blocks from said protocol conversion and address translation element, means for segmenting said assembled data blocks into said shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for adding a header and a trailer to each fixed-sized data block so as to form a plurality of cells of data, and means for sending said cells of data to said SMDS network; and said protocol conversion and address translation element comprising means for sending and receiving frames of data to and from said frame relay element, means for sending and receiving assembled data blocks to and from said SMDS element, means for removing the frame relay headers and trailers from said received frames of data and for appending SMDS headers and trailers to said assembled data blocks to be sent to said SMDS element, means for removing the SMDS headers and trailers from said received assembled blocks of data and for appending frame relay headers and trailers to said frames of data to be sent to said frame relay element, means for translating frame relay addresses to SMDS addresses and means for translating SMDS addresses to frame relay addresses. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A terminal adapter for interfacing a native SMDS DTE with a frame relay telecommunications network so that said frame relay network is transparent to said SMDS DTE, said terminal adapter comprising:
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a frame relay element for interfacing with said frame relay network; an SMDS element for interfacing with said SMDS DTE; and a protocol conversion and address translation element connected between said frame relay element and said SMDS element for converting the transmission protocol between frame relay and SMDS and for translating the addresses between frame relay and SMDS, said frame relay element comprising means for receiving frames of data from said frame relay network, each frame having a header and a trailer, means for parsing said frames of data, and means for passing said parsed frames of data to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said frame relay element further comprising means for receiving frames of data from said protocol conversion and address translation element and means for sending frames of data to said frame relay network; said SMDS element comprising means for receiving cells of data from said SMDS DTE, each cell having a header and a trailer, means for verifying and removing said headers and trailers thereby forming shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for assembling a plurality of data blocks, and means for passing said assembled data blocks to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said SMDS element further comprising means for receiving assembled data blocks from said protocol conversion and address translation element, means for segmenting said assembled data blocks into said shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for adding a header and a trailer to each said fixed-sized data block so as to form a plurality of cells of data, and means for sending said cells of data to said SMDS DTE; and said protocol conversion and address translation element comprising means for sending and receiving frames of data to and from said frame relay element, means for sending and receiving assembled data blocks to and from said SMDS element, means for removing the frame relay headers and trailers from said received frames of data and for appending SMDS headers and trailers to said assembled data blocks to be sent to said SMDS element, means for removing the SMDS headers and trailers from said received assembled blocks of data and for appending frame relay headers and trailers to said frames of data to be sent to said frame relay element, means for translating frame relay addresses to SMDS addresses and means for translating SMDS addresses to frame relay addresses.
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8. A system for retrieving a particular entry based upon a particular call-up number having a plurality of digits, said system comprising:
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a plurality of tables each having a plurality of memory spaces, each memory space of each table having an entry portion and further having a unique memory-address indicating the location of that memory space within its table, each table further having an associated pointer register having a value ranging from the lowest memory-address to the highest memory-address of that table; means for forming the values of said pointer registers based upon said call-up number by segmenting said call-up number into a plurality of portions and assigning each portion to a pointer register; means for examining the contents of the memory space of each table having a memory-address equal to the value of the table'"'"'s associated pointer register; means for determining whether the contents of each of said addressed memory spaces is valid; and means for retrieving a valid entry when any of said addressed memory spaces has a valid entry. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. For use in a system comprising a plurality of tables each having a plurality of memory spaces, each memory space of a table having a unique memory-address indicating the location of that memory space within its table, each table further having an associated pointer register having a value ranging from the lowest memory-address to the highest memory-address of that table, a method of retrieving a particular entry from one of said memory spaces based upon a particular call-up number having a plurality of digits, said method comprising the steps of:
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forming the values of said pointer registers based upon said call-up number by segmenting said call-up number into a plurality of portions and assigning each portion to a pointer register; examining the contents of the memory space of each table having a memory-address equal to the value of the table'"'"'s associated pointer register; determining whether the contents of each of said addressed memory spaces is valid; and when any of said addressed memory spaces has a valid entry, retrieving said valid entry. - View Dependent Claims (17)
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- 18. A system for interfacing with an SMDS telecommunications network comprising a native frame relay (DTE) and a terminal adapter, said terminal adapter comprising a frame relay element for interfacing with said frame relay DTE, an SMDS element for interfacing with said SMDS network, and a protocol conversion and address translation element connected between said frame relay element and said SMDS element for converting the transmission protocol between frame relay and SMDS and for translating the addresses between frame relay and SMDS, said frame relay element comprising means for receiving frames of data from said frame relay DTE, each frame having a header and a trailer, means for parsing said frames of data, and means for passing said parsed frames of data to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said frame relay element further comprising means for receiving frames of data from said protocol conversion and address translation element and means for sending frames of data to said frame relay DTE, said SMDS element comprising means for receiving cells of data from said SMDS network, each cell having a header and a trailer, means for verifying and removing said headers and trailers thereby forming shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for assembling a plurality of data blocks, and means for passing said assembled data blocks to said protocol conversion and address translation element, said SMDS element further comprising means for receiving assembled data blocks from said protocol conversion and address translation element, means for segmenting said assembled data blocks into said shorter fixed-sized data blocks, means for adding a header and a trailer to each fixed-sized data block so as to form a plurality of cells of data, and means for sending said cells of data to said SMDS network, and said protocol conversion and address translation element comprising means for sending and receiving frames of data to and from said frame relay element, means for sending and receiving assembled data blocks to and from said SMDS element, means for removing the frame relay headers and trailers from said received frames of data and for appending SMDS headers and trailers to said assembled data blocks to be sent to said SMDS element, means for removing the SMDS headers and trailers from said received assembled blocks of data and for appending frame relay headers and trailers to said frames of data to be sent to said frame relay element, means for translating frame relay addresses to SMDS addresses and means for translating SMDS addresses to frame relay addresses.
Specification