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Communication system concentrator configurable to different access methods

  • US 5,301,303 A
  • Filed: 04/16/1991
  • Issued: 04/05/1994
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/23/1990
  • Status: Expired due to Term
First Claim
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1. A communication system concentrator, comprising:

  • a plurality of media modules having one or more ports, each media module being provided for a physical local area network media type, each media module being provided for a specific network access method, said one or more ports of each media module offering a specific local area network media connection providing for a specific access method on a specific physical LAN media type;

    a generic passive backplane with multiple physical circuits which are assigned for data exchange between said plurality of media modules, said media modules plugging into said generic passive backplane for connection to said multiple physical circuits; and

    management means, connected to the generic passive backplane, for configuring and reconfiguring said multiple physical circuits to provide independent physical communications paths between said plurality of media modules of a like network access method establishing a physical layer network connection between said plurality of media modules of a like access method on any one of said independent physical communication paths, including means for establishing one or more of an ETHERNET network access method on any one of said independent physical communication paths, a token ring network access method on any one of said independent physical communication paths, a token bus network access method on any one of said independent physical communication paths and a fiber distributed data interface network access method on any one of said independent physical communication paths wherein one or more media access method is established on said generic passive backplane, said backplane providing multiple, simultaneous data transfer on different ones of said independent physical communication paths of said generic passive backplane.

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