| US 7,602,776 B2 | ||
| Time division multiplexed link connections between a switching matrix and a port in a network element | ||
| Sergio Cabrini, San Giuliano Milanese (Italy); Silvio Cucchi, Gaggiano (Italy); Stefano Gastaldello, Teolo (Italy); Giulio Gladiali, Milan (Italy); and Luca Razzetti, Sesto San Giovanni (Italy) | ||
| Assigned to Alcatel, Paris (France) | ||
| Filed on Feb. 22, 2005, as Appl. No. 11/61,640. | ||
| Claims priority of application No. 04290904 (EP), filed on Apr. 05, 2004. | ||
| Prior Publication US 2005/0232310 A1, Oct. 20, 2005 | ||
| Int. Cl. H04Q 11/00 (2006.01) | ||
| U.S. Cl. 370—387 [370/395.7; 370/429] | 15 Claims |
| 1. A network element comprising:
an input port and
a plurality of time division multiplex switching matrices, said input port being connected to said switching matrices through
at least one backpanel connection,
wherein the input port receives a plurality of input flows, each said input flow in the form of bits arranged in frames, wherein
each frame comprises at least one tributary,
wherein the input port comprises:
a memory for storing a predetermined number of bytes for each tributary;
a slicer for slicing the stored predetermined number of bytes for each tributary into a plurality of word structures; and
a backpanel framer for forming backpanel frames with said word structures,
wherein the number of said word structures for each tributary is equal to the number of said switching matrices;
wherein the capacity of the input flow being equal to the capacity of the overall backpanel connection capacity; and
wherein each backpanel frame comprises, for a number of input flows equal to the number of switching matrices, a corresponding
word structure of the tributaries.
|