Scalable multimedia network

• US 5,555,244 A
• Filed: 06/30/1994
• Issued: 09/10/1996
• Est. Priority Date: 05/19/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Cisco Technology, Inc. (Cisco Systems, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Integrated Network Corp.
• Inventors: Chen, Yu-Ren B., Gupta, Dev V., Stone, Alan E., Sharper, Craig A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hsu, Alpus H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): NGO, RICKY QUOC
• Application Number:
  US08/269,370
• Time in Patent Office: 803 Days
• Field of Search: 370/58.1, 370/60, 370/60.1, 370/79, 370/82, 370/83, 370/84, 370/85.1, 370/85.7, 370/55.9, 370/85.11, 370/85.13, 370/99, 370/110.1, 370/85.14, 370/94.1 , 370/94.2, 370/105.1
• US Class Current: 370/397
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2801 Broadband local area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/2852 Metropolitan area networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/64 Hybrid switching systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6402 Hybrid switching fabrics
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5612 Ring
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5613 Bus (including DQDB)
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5614 User Network Interface
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5615 Network termination, e.g. NT1, NT2, PBX
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5627 Fault tolerance and recovery
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5638 Services, e.g. multimedia, GOS, QOS
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5651 Priority, marking, classes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5652 Cell construction, e.g. including header, packetisation, depacketisation, assembly, reassembly
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/5679 Arbitration or scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6427 Subscriber Access Module; Concentrator; Group equipment
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6443 Network Node Interface, e.g. Routing, Path finding
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6448 Medium Access Control [MAC]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6459 Multiplexing, e.g. TDMA, CDMA
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6464 Priority
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6483 Video, e.g. MPEG
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6486 Signalling Protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2012/6489 : Buffer Management, Threshold setting, Scheduling, Shaping
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 49/107 : using shared medium
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1026 : at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1036 : at the edge
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 65/1101 : Session protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 69/08 : Protocols for interworking; Protocol conversion
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/40 : Network security protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/6118 : involving cable transmission, e.g. using a cable modem
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/64707 : for transferring content from a first network to a second network, e.g. between IP and wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/173 : with two-way working, e.g. subscriber sending a programme selection signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17309 : Transmission or handling of upstream communications
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17336 : Handling of requests in head-ends
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/17345 : Control of the passage of the selected programme
• CPC Class Codes: H04Q 11/0478 : Provisions for broadband connections

Abstract

A Scalable Multimedia Network providing integrated networking of data, voice, video and image services over a variety of access facilities including metallic loops, fiber/coax or digital fiber is disclosed herein.

The SMN establishes customer initiated switched virtual circuits for all traffic types and directs them to the appropriate backbone network. The SMN is based on a distributed switching platform that enables carriers to economically provide service to a small number of customers and add capacity incrementally as the customer base increases. The platform has a protocol adaptation capability which permits communications between customer premises equipment and potentially incompatible backbone networks or network servers.

Claims

1. A multimedia network system comprising:

a plurality of gateway devices for transmitting and receiving a plurality of digital signals, each digital signal comprising user data, each gateway device having a plurality of service definition modules for transmitting and receiving the user data to and from users; and

a switch comprising a tiered system of buses and a plurality of channel units coupled to the gateway devices for converting the user data into cells having an intra-switch cell format and coupling the cells to the tiered system of buses, and receiving cells addressed to users and converting data in the cells into appropriate physical and frame format and coupling the converted data to the appropriate gateway device wherein the tiered system of buses comprises a plurality of first buses carrying digital bits at a first rate and a plurality of second buses carrying digital bits at a second rate, the first buses being interconnected to the second buses and wherein the first buses consist of N independent X bit parallel buses and the second buses consist of N independent serial buses.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein N=4 and X=16.

3. A scalable multimedia network comprising:

a first data connector for converting user data into cells having an intra-network cell format comprising first and second packet cell formats and coupling the cells to a high speed system bus wherein the bus comprises tiers of buses, each tier bus operating at a different data rate;

a receiver for receiving cells addressed to users;

a second data connector for converting data in the cells into an appropriate physical and frame format; and

a coupler for coupling the converted data to an appropriate destination;

wherein the cells comprise a plurality of first cells having the first packet cell format and a plurality of second cells having the second packet cell format, any first cell having priority over any second cell in accessing the high speed bus and wherein the first packet cell format comprises a cell of 8 bytes wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

four bytes provide a destination address for the packet;

two bytes contain data information and two bytes contain priority information, sequence information, signaling information and CRC information.

4. The network of claim 3 wherein the destination address is provided by fields within the four bytes as follows:

a. a three bit bus destination field;

b. an eight bit shelf destination field;

c. a five bit slot destination field; and

d. a sixteen bit port destination field and the priority information, sequence information, signaling information, and CRC information are provided by fields within the two bytes as follows;

a. a two bit priority field;

b. a two bit sequence number field;

c. a two bit signaling field;

d. a one bit spare field;

e. a one bit signaling enable field;

f. a one bit large packet identification field;

g. a one bit end of packet identification field;

h. a one bit CRC error reported field; and

i. a five bit CRC field.

5. A scalable multimedia network comprising:

a first data connector for converting user data into cells having an intra-network cell format comprising first and second packet cell formats and coupling the cells to a high speed system bus wherein the bus comprises tiers of buses, each tier bus operating at a different data rate;

a receiver for receiving cells addressed to users;

a second data connector for converting data in the cells into an appropriate physical and frame format; and

a coupler for coupling the converted data to an appropriate destination;

wherein the cells comprise a plurality of first cells having the first packet cell format and a plurality of second cells having the second packet cell format, any first cell having priority over any second cell in accessing the high speed bus and wherein the second packet cell format comprises cells of 8 bytes comprising;

a. a first cell wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

four bytes provide a destination address for the packet;

two bytes provide a reserved word; and

two bytes provide priority, congestion control, and CRC information;

b. a last cell wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

zero to six bytes provide data information, one byte provides a byte count for the packet, and one byte provides CRC information;

c. zero or more cells wherein there are 7 data bytes followed by one byte containing CRC information.

6. The network of claim 5 wherein the first cell contains fields comprising:

a. a three bit bus destination field;

b. an eight bit shelf destination field;

c. a five bit slot destination field;

d. a sixteen bit port and VCI index;

e. a sixteen bit reserved word field;

f. a two bit priority field;

g. a one bit forward congestion field;

h. a two bit backward congestion field;

i. a one bit discard eligibility field;

j. a one bit spare data field;

k. a one bit control/data field;

l. a one bit large packet identification field;

m. a one bit end of packet identification field;

n. a one bit CRC error reported field; and

o. a five bit CRC field.

7. In a communication network, a method of data communication comprising the steps of:

converting user data into cells having an intra-network cell format comprising first and second packet cell formats;

coupling the cells to a high speed system bus wherein the bus comprises tiers of buses, each tier bus operating at a different data rate;

receiving cells and converting data in the cells into an appropriate physical and frame format; and

coupling the converted data to an appropriate destination;

wherein the cells comprise a plurality of first cells having the first packet cell format and a plurality of second cells having the second packet cell format, any first cell having priority over any second cell in accessing the high speed bus and wherein the first packet cell format comprises a cell of 8 bytes and wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

four bytes provide a destination address for the packet;

two bytes contain data information and two bytes contain priority information, sequence information, signaling information and CRC information.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the destination address is provided by fields within the four bytes as follows:

a. a three bit bus destination field;

b. an eight bit shelf destination field;

c. a five bit slot destination field; and

d. a sixteen bit port destination field and the priority information, sequence information, signaling information, and CRC information are provided by fields within the two bytes as follows;

a. a two bit priority field;

b. a two bit sequence number field;

c. a two bit signaling field;

d. a one bit spare field;

e. a one bit signaling enable field;

f. a one bit large packet identification field;

g. a one bit end of packet identification field;

h. a one bit CRC error reported field; and

i. a five bit CRC field.

9. In a communication network, a method of data communication comprising the steps of:

converting user data into cells having intra-network cell format comprising first and second packet cell formats;

coupling the cells to a high speed system bus wherein the bus comprises tiers of buses, each tier bus operating at a different rate;

receiving cells and converting data in the cells into an appropriate physical and frame format; and

coupling the converted data to an appropriate destination and

wherein the cells comprise a plurality of first cells having the first packet cell format and a plurality of second cells having the second packet cell format, any first cell having priority over any second cell in accessing the high speed bus and wherein the second packet cell format comprises cells of 8 bytes comprising;

a. a first cell wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

four bytes provide a destination address for the packet;

two bytes provide a reserved word; and

two bytes provide priority, congestion control, and CRC information;

b. a last cell wherein the bytes are arranged as follows;

zero to six bytes provide data information, one byte provides a byte count for the packet, and one byte provides CRC information;

c. zero or more cells wherein there are 7 data bytes followed by one byte containing CRC information.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the first cell contains fields comprising:

a. a three bit bus destination field;

b. an eight bit shelf destination field;

c. a five bit slot destination field;

d. a sixteen bit port and VCI index;

e. a sixteen bit reserved word field;

f. a two bit priority field;

g. a one bit forward congestion field;

h. a two bit backward congestion field;

i. a one bit discard eligibility field;

j. a one bit spare data field;

k. a one bit control/data field;

l. a one bit large packet identification field;

m. a one bit end of packet identification field;

n. a one bit CRC error reported field; and

o. a five bit CRC field.