Failure tolerant high density dial router
First Claim
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1. A fault tolerant dial router, comprising:
- a primary line interface unit coupled to telephone lines from a telephone network;
a primary conversion subsystem converting calls on the telephone lines into packets;
a router routing the packets on a packet based network; and
a primary cross-connect switch coupled between the primary line interface unit and the primary conversion subsystem that reconnects the primary line interface unit to a secondary conversion subsystem when a failure is detected in the primary subsystem, the primary cross-connect switch also configurable to switch around a failed primary line interface unit while maintaining operation of the primary conversion subsystem connected to the failed primary line interface unit by disconnecting the primary line interface unit from the primary conversion subsystem and connecting a secondary line interface unit to the primary conversion subsystem.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A Fault Tolerant Dial Router (FTDR) includes redundant subsystem resources that operate independently of telephone line interface connections. The redundant resources are switched active when a failure is detected in an activated dial router subsystem. Switching out subsystem failures is fully automated under software control, providing uninterrupted service to users with limited performance loss. The FTDR includes a switching mechanism that selectively switches out the telephone interfaces or other subsystem resources inside the dial router box detected as having failures. The subsystem resources include line framers, controllers and modem modules.
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Citations
18 Claims
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1. A fault tolerant dial router, comprising:
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a primary line interface unit coupled to telephone lines from a telephone network;
a primary conversion subsystem converting calls on the telephone lines into packets;
a router routing the packets on a packet based network; and
a primary cross-connect switch coupled between the primary line interface unit and the primary conversion subsystem that reconnects the primary line interface unit to a secondary conversion subsystem when a failure is detected in the primary subsystem, the primary cross-connect switch also configurable to switch around a failed primary line interface unit while maintaining operation of the primary conversion subsystem connected to the failed primary line interface unit by disconnecting the primary line interface unit from the primary conversion subsystem and connecting a secondary line interface unit to the primary conversion subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A cross-connect switch for reconfiguring different functional elements in a dial router, comprising:
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a first interface coupled to a telephone line interface unit that receives telephone line signals;
a second interface coupled to a framer that frames the telephone line signals into individual telephone calls;
a third interface coupled to another framer in the dial router and to another telephone line interface unit;
the first interface disconnecting the telephone line interface unit from the framer unit and the third interface then automatically connecting the other telephone line interface unit to the framer when the telephone line interface unit fails. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 14, 15)
a first multiplexer selectively coupling inputs from either one of the second and third interface to the first interface;
a second multiplexer selectively coupling inputs from either one of the first or third interface to the second interface, and a third multiplexer selectively coupling inputs from either one of the first and second interface to the third interface.
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12. A cross-connect switch according to claim 11 including a configuration register that configures which interface is output from each multiplexer.
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14. A method according to claim 12 including reconfiguring the concentrator to reconfigure the telephone data stream around individual failed modem modules in the subsystem while remaining modem modules convert the telephone calls into digital packets.
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15. A method according to claim 14 including reconfiguring the concentrator to reconnect the telephone data stream around an entire bank of modem units or around a framer in the subsystem identified as causing call failures while the line interface unit continues to receive calls from the telephone network.
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13. A method for increasing fault tolerance in a telephone line concentrator, comprising:
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activating line interface units for receiving telephone call data streams from a telephone network;
activating subsystems for separating the data streams on the telephone lines into separate telephone channels and extracting digital data from the channels;
converting the digital data into packets and routing the digital packets on a packet based network;
monitoring the line interface units and subsystems for failures; and
automatically reconfiguring the concentrator to reconnect telephone signals around any one of the monitored line interface units and subsystems having a detected failure while keeping any remaining operating line interface units and operating subsystems available for continued processing of the telephone call data stream by disconnecting a failed one of the line interface units from an operating one of the subsystems and reconnecting the operating one of the subsystems to a different one of the operating line interface units.
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16. A computer-readable medium containing software for handling fault tolerance in a telephone line concentrator, comprising:
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code for activating line interface units for receiving telephone call data streams from a telephone network;
code for activating subsystems for separating the data streams on the telephone lines into separate telephone channels and extracting digital data from the channels;
code for converting the digital data into packets and routing the digital packets on a packet based network;
code for monitoring the line interface units and subsystems for failures; and
code for automatically reconfiguring the concentrator to reconnect telephone signals around any one of the monitored line interface units and subsystems having a detected failure while keeping any remaining operating interface units and subsystems available for continued processing of the telephone call data stream by disconnecting a failed one of the line interface units from an operating one of the subsystems and reconnecting the operating one of the subsystems to a different one of the operating line interface units. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18)
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Specification