System and method for transporting time-division multiplexed communications through a packet-switched access network
First Claim
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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.
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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.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A system for providing communications between a customer premise equipment and a service edge, the system comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16)
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17. A method comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19)
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Specification