Switch with flexible link list manager for handling ATM and STM traffic
First Claim
1. A switch for handling synchronous transfer mode (STM) digital data signals and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) digital data signals, comprising:
- at least two digital data input links, wherein at least one data input link is configured for handling data bits propagating synchronously in a serial stream and at least one data input link is configured for handling data bits propagating asynchronously in a serial stream;
an input memory page including an input memory and at least two input registers coupled to the input links for accumulating digital data segments each having an equal number of bits taken from each serial input link, respectively, and outputting the data segments in parallel format into the input memory;
a data buffer coupled to the input memory for storing the parallel format data segments;
at least two digital data output links, wherein at least one output link is configured for handling data bits propagating synchronously in a serial stream and at least one output link is configured for handling data bits propagating asynchronously in a serial stream;
an output memory page including an output memory and at least two output registers coupled to the data buffer for receiving parallel format data segments from the data buffer, accumulating the data segments in serial format, and outputting the data segments in serial format on predetermined ones of the digital data output links; and
,a link list manager coupled to the data buffer for coordinating the flow of data into and out of the data buffer.
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Abstract
A telecommunication switch for handling both synchronous transfer mode (STM) digital data signals and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) digital data signals includes a flexible link list manager for mapping input slots to output slots, an input hybrid page, an output hybrid page and a hybrid routing table for managing the time slot interchange function. The STM data stream is segmented to form fixed length, serially propagating digital data words. The segment length of each STM data word is equal to the ATM cell length. The number of bytes in each STM segment and the number of bytes in each ATM cell are the same, and the STM segments and ATM cells are equal in duration. Because the ATM and STM signals are routed through a common switch, it is not necessary to split the two types of traffic before switching can be performed. Consequently, the switch can support any network distribution of ATM and STM traffic with the same switching equipment.
62 Citations
14 Claims
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1. A switch for handling synchronous transfer mode (STM) digital data signals and asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) digital data signals, comprising:
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at least two digital data input links, wherein at least one data input link is configured for handling data bits propagating synchronously in a serial stream and at least one data input link is configured for handling data bits propagating asynchronously in a serial stream; an input memory page including an input memory and at least two input registers coupled to the input links for accumulating digital data segments each having an equal number of bits taken from each serial input link, respectively, and outputting the data segments in parallel format into the input memory; a data buffer coupled to the input memory for storing the parallel format data segments; at least two digital data output links, wherein at least one output link is configured for handling data bits propagating synchronously in a serial stream and at least one output link is configured for handling data bits propagating asynchronously in a serial stream; an output memory page including an output memory and at least two output registers coupled to the data buffer for receiving parallel format data segments from the data buffer, accumulating the data segments in serial format, and outputting the data segments in serial format on predetermined ones of the digital data output links; and
,a link list manager coupled to the data buffer for coordinating the flow of data into and out of the data buffer. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A switch for handling synchronous transfer mode digital data signals and asynchronous transfer mode digital data signals, comprising:
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at least two data input links including at least one input link dedicated for handling synchronous data and at least one input link dedicated for handling asynchronous data; at least two data output links including at least one output link dedicated for handling synchronous data and at least one output link dedicated for handling asynchronous data; an input memory page coupled to the at least two data input links, the input memory page including at least two shift registers for accumulating and multiplexing bytes of input data; a data buffer coupled to the input memory for storing bytes of multiplexed input data; an output memory page coupled to the data buffer and the at least two data output links, the output memory page including at least two shift registers for accumulating and demultiplexing bytes of multiplexed data; a link list manager control circuit for coordinating the flow of data into and out of the data buffer, the link list manager control circuit including a look-up memory including a link list logic table, a virtual path identifier/virtual channel identifier table, a link list memory and a routing table coupled to the data buffer for storing mapping instructions to the at least two data output links; a write pointer for writing data from the input memory page into the data buffer; and
,a read pointer for directing data values from the look-up memory to the output memory page. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A method of switching asynchronous transfer mode data and synchronous transfer mode data in a single switch comprising the steps of:
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receiving one or more streams of synchronous data on one or more serial input links; receiving one or more streams of asynchronous data cells on one or mo re serial input links; accumulating bytes of asynchronous data from each of the asynchronous input links; accumulating bytes of synchronous data from each of the synchronous input links, each byte of synchronous data being equal to the byte size and time frame duration of the asynchronous data cells; converting the synchronous data bytes and asynchronous data bytes into parallel format and storing the parallel format data in an input memory; routing each segment to a selected output link based on information contained in a routing table; storing asynchronous transfer mode cells contending for the same output links in at least one asynchronous transfer mode data buffer; reading data from the at least one asynchronous transfer mode data buffer into the selected output link; wherein the step of storing asynchronous transfer mode segments contending for the same output links includes operating a pointer on a common pool of buffers according to a first-in-first-out link list associated with at least a class of service; and
,wherein the requests from every class of service are serviced sequentially for as long as an associated counter and depth of an associated queue are not zero. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14)
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Specification