Packet telephony appliance

• US 7,447,195 B1
• Filed: 11/23/2004
• Issued: 11/04/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/15/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Bampton Technologies, LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Corporation (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Sreenan, Cormac John, Chan, Mike, Cranor, Charles D., Gopalakrishnan, Raman, Onufryk, Peter Z, Ruedisueli, Laurence W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chan, Wing F
• Assistant Examiner(s): Tsegaye, Saba
• Application Number:
  US10/995,936
• Time in Patent Office: 1,442 Days
• Field of Search: 370352-356, 370/395.1, 370/395.52, 370/395.7, 370/395.71, 370/395.72, 370/401, 370/428, 370/429, 370/463, 370/465, 370/466
• US Class Current: 370/352
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/6418 Hybrid transport

Abstract

A packet telephony appliance includes a Euphony network processor that integrates networking and DSP functions to provide a low cost and efficient solution in building a networked appliance. In particular, a Euphony ATM Telephone (EAT) is built around the Euphony network processor. The EAT uses a real-time operating system to provide predictable processing and networking support. The EAT implements IObufs, which provides a unified buffering scheme that allows zero-copy data movement. Furthermore, the EAT uses an Event Exchange (EVX), which provides a flexible mechanism for event distribution, allowing software modules to be composed together in an extensible manner. EVX and IObufs are used together to provide highly efficient intra-appliance communication. The EAT provides a platform that can evolve gracefully to support new protocols, advanced telephony services and enhanced user interfaces.

Claims

1. An apparatus for providing a system software service in a packet telephony appliance having a plurality of modules, comprising:

means for loading and executing a real-time single address space operating system kernel;

means for implementing a unified buffering mechanism across all modules in the packet telephony appliance, where the unified buffering mechanism is a zero-copy mechanism for storing and passing data; and

means for implementing an event-based mechanism for communicating between the modules.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said real-time single address space operating system kernel is a VxWorks kernel.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said unified buffering mechanism employs IObufs.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said event-based mechanism is an Event Exchange inter-module communication mechanism.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said means for implementing said even-based mechanism comprises:

means for creating at least one sending port and at least one receiving port for each module;

means for initializing said at least one sending port and said at least one receiving port;

means for setting a queue size of said at least one sending port to control flow;

means for posting events to said at least one sending port; and

means for delivering posted events to said at least one receiving port.

6. The apparatus of claim 5, wherein the means for implementing said event-based mechanism further comprises:

means for processing delivered events; and

means for issuing an acknowledgement.