System and method for transporting time-division multiplexed communications through a packet-switched access network

• US 8,948,207 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2004
• Issued: 02/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Verizon Patent and Licensing Incorporated (Verizon Communications Inc.)
• Inventors: DelRegno, Nick, Kotrla, Scott R., McDysan, David E., Bencheck, Michael U., Turlington, Matthew W., Hardin, Ross S., Schell, Richard C., Chiu, Howard, Bengston, Lee D., Drake, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Yuen, Kan
• Application Number:
  US10/860,609
• Publication Number:
  US 20050220148A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,897 Days
• Field of Search: 370351-356, 370/389, 370465-467, 370/442, 370/498, 370/401
• US Class Current: 370/498
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 47/10 Flow control; Congestion control
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/006 Networks other than PSTN/ISDN providing telephone service, e.g. Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) , including next generation networks with a packet-switched transport layer H04L65/00 takes precedence; aspects not specific to the type of network H04M3/00; special services in those networks H04M3/42

Abstract

A system and method are provided for providing access communications between customer locations and a core network service edge. Access flows are handled as carrier-tagged flows through a packet switched network comprising network elements that interpret and manipulate carrier tag values associated with traffic-bearing data frames. Time-division multiplexed (TDM) signals are transported as carrier-tagged flows between customer premise equipment that communicates using TDM signals and a service edge that communicates using TDM signals.

Claims

1. A method for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the method comprising:

receiving from the customer premise equipment a first communication according to a first time-division multiplexed signal format;

converting the first communication to a carrier-tagged communication, that is associated with a carrier tag value;

sending the carrier-tagged communication as a packet-switched communication along a packet-switched communication path based on the carrier tag value;

converting the carrier-tagged communication to a second communication according to a second time-division multiplexed signal format, the first time-division multiplexed signal format being different from the second time-division multiplexed signal format; and

sending the second communication to the service edge.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the first time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a plesiochronous digital hierarchy signal format.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the second time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a plesiochronous digital hierarchy signal format.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the second time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication comprises ethernet communications.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication includes at least one of a packet-switched network tunnel, a service emulation instance, a pseudowire, a logical networking tagged path or a virtual local area network (VLAN) circuit.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the packet-switched communication is transported using a third time-division multiplexed signal format.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein the third time-division multiplexed signal format comprises a synchronous digital hierarchy signal format.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

at a network element, affecting a routing of the carrier-tagged communication responsive to the carrier tag value associated therewith.

11. The method of claim 1, where the packet-switched communications path is configured for at least one of Ethernet traffic, frame relay traffic, asynchronous transfer mode traffic, or high level data link control traffic.

12. A system for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the system comprising:

a time-division multiplexing fabric to route time-division multiplexed communications;

a packet fabric to route packet-switched communications; and

at least one time-division multiplexing to packet conversion switch to convert a first communication between a time-division multiplexed signal format and a packet-switched format based on the communication being associated with a carrier tag value;

wherein the packet-switched communication is sent along a packet-switched communication path based on the carrier tag value;

the carrier-tagged packet-switched communication is converted to a second communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format different from the time-division multiplexed signal format of the first communication; and

the second communication is sent to the service edge.

13. The system of claim 12, where communications between the time division multiplexing fabric and the packet fabric are routed based on the carrier tag value.

14. The system of claim 12, further comprising a plurality of ports configured to support different types of connections.

15. The system of claim 14, where the different types of connections include at least one of an optical link, an electrical link, or a wireless link.

16. The system of claim 12, further comprising:

a plurality of ports configured to support at least two of;

an Ethernet connection,

a time-division multiplexed connection,

a frame relay connection,

an asynchronous transfer mode connection, or

a high-level data link control connection.

17. A method comprising:

receiving a first communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format, the first communication being associated with a first carrier tag value;

converting the first communication to a packet-switched communication based on the first communication being associated with the first carrier tag value, where the conversion of the first communication to the packet-switched communication is performed at one of a building aggregation system, a layer 2 switch, a service emulation instance terminator, or a service edge;

sending the packet-switched communication along a packet-switched communications path;

receiving a second communication according to a time-division multiplexed signal format, the second communication being associated with a second carrier tag value; and

sending the second communication without converting the second communication to a packet-switched communication.

18. The method of claim 17, where the first carrier tag value includes a VLAN value.

19. The method of claim 17, where the first carrier tag value includes a pseudowire value.