Interconnection method for digital multimedia communications
First Claim
1. A network controller connected to a plurality of nodes in a common network for dynamically reconfiguring said network, said network controller comprising:
- a switching device connected to said plurality of nodes for connecting each node to at least another node for direct transmission of data therebetween on said common network, said switching device being responsive to one or more control signals; and
means for providing said one or more control signals to said switching device for establishing a second network comprising a first node and at least one other node upon receiving an establish request from said first node and for concurrently re-establishing said common network comprising the nodes of said common network not included in said second network.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A network controller for dynamically rearranging a LAN to guarantee bandwidth required for multimedia communications comprises a switch for being connected to the transmit and receive ports of each LAN station and a switch controller. The switch comprises an internal switching fabric such that any receive port can be connected to any transmit port of any of the stations. The switch controller, which is connected to the primary LAN, controls the switch so that the LAN may be dynamically reconfigured when, for instance, a LAN node wishes to establish a private session with another LAN node. The request from the node to the controller is sent in a packet being passed around the primary ring. After the data transfer is complete between the two stations and they wish to re-enter the primary ring, one of the stations issues a request to the network controller to reconfigure the network. The request is made by applying a DC voltage to one of the node'"'"'s receive or transmit line pairs. The network controller detects this signal with DC detection circuitry and reconfigures the network accordingly.
-
Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A network controller connected to a plurality of nodes in a common network for dynamically reconfiguring said network, said network controller comprising:
-
a switching device connected to said plurality of nodes for connecting each node to at least another node for direct transmission of data therebetween on said common network, said switching device being responsive to one or more control signals; and means for providing said one or more control signals to said switching device for establishing a second network comprising a first node and at least one other node upon receiving an establish request from said first node and for concurrently re-establishing said common network comprising the nodes of said common network not included in said second network. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
-
-
8. A method of configuring a network having a plurality of nodes directly interconnected by a switch, said method comprising the steps of:
-
establishing said network in an initial common configuration including each of said nodes; receiving an establish request from a first node in said common configuration for establishing a second network comprising said first node and at least one other node; and reconfiguring said switching device for establishing said second network comprising said first node and said at least one other node and for concurrently re-establishing said common configuration comprising the nodes of said common configuration not included in said second network. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A network comprising:
-
a plurality of nodes; a network controller connected to said plurality of nodes in a common network for dynamically reconfiguring said network, said network controller comprising; a switching device connected to said plurality of nodes for connecting each node to at least another node for direct transmission of data therebetween on said common network, said switching device being responsive to one or more control signals; and means for providing said one or more control signals to said switching device for establishing a second network comprising a first node and at least one other node upon receiving an establish request from said first node and for concurrently re-establishing said common network comprising the nodes of said common network not included in said second network. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
-
Specification