Scalable multimedia network

Details Scalable multimedia network Scalable multimedia network

1999-01-25

2001-08-07

Vu, Huy D. (Department: 2664)

Multiplex communications

Communication techniques for information carried in plural...

Combining or distributing information via frequency channels

C370S419000, C370S421000, C370S471000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06272151

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
To expand their service offerings and revenue base, telephone companies and cable television operators (collectively, “carriers”) are planning new broadband networks to provide interactive multimedia services which cannot be provided by existing communications networks. A number of carriers have announced plans to make significant capital investments to construct “full service” networks to support applications such as video-on-demand, Internet access, and interactive home shopping.
End-user demand for a greater number of services will produce fundamental changes in switched carrier networks. The existing traditional network architecture emphasizes the central office switch. A need exists for a network architecture where switching and transmission functions are integrated, i.e., a distributed switched network. The need is driven by end-user demand for high performance, interactive application support; the deployment of powerful application oriented end-user equipment; the availability of relatively inexpensive distributed technology; the need to respond quickly and flexibly to a dynamic application and technical environment; and the resulting pressure to correlate capital investment with user demand. The results foreseen are cost-effective, adaptable and powerful networks which better meet end-user needs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A Scalable Multimedia Network (SMN) providing integrated networking of data, voice, video and image services over a variety of access facilities including metallic loops, fiber/coax and digital fiber is disclosed herein.
The SMN establishes customer initiated switched virtual circuits, or “calls”, for all traffic types and directs them to the appropriate backbone network. The SMN is based on a distributed switching platform that enables carriers to economically provide service to a small number of customers and add capacity incrementally as the customer base increases. The platform has a protocol adaptation capability which permits communications between customer premises equipment and potentially incompatible backbone networks or network servers.
The SMN has the following principal features which will be described in connection with the detailed description that follows:
(a) Services are provisioned incrementally for individual subscribers by means of service and input/output channel units designed with standard hardware interfaces.
(b) Channel units reside on shelves having a plurality of slots, and share a first broadcast bus operating at high speed, e.g., 250 Mbps. The bus signaling format is a novel 8 byte “microcell” which can be concatenated, or aggregated, in any variable length to support existing circuit and packet mode transport protocols.
(c) Up to several hundred shelves containing thousands of channel units can be interconnected by means of a second bus operating at very high speed, e.g., 1 Gbps. A plurality of second type buses containing up to many thousands of channel units may be interconnected by means of a third bus operating at super high speed of about 10 Gbps.
(d) Switching is performed on channel units by means of novel bus interface circuits (“BICs”) which perform all cell packetization and depacketization functions.
(e) An internal Internetwork Protocol Engine (“IPE”) is provided enabling use of industry standard TCP/IP Internetwork which is a superset of all popular, signaling protocols' Internetwork primitives.
(f) System functions are controlled by a network management system with an extensive set of software application programming interfaces (“APIs”) written in object-oriented code.
The key features and advantages of the SMN architecture include:
(a) Multimedia Capability
The multi-tier bus format is adapted to efficiently handle all voice, data, image and video traffic types simultaneously, including TDM, X.25, frame relay, cell relay, SMDS, MPEG and ATM. Physical media including metallic loops, coaxial cable and optical fiber are supported by means of standard hardware interfaces. The SMN is thereby capable of tying together incompatible backbone networks into a common multi-media access facility.
(b) Scalability
The SMN uses a distributed broadcast bus architecture with no common switching equipment. Switching capacity embedded in channel units can be added incrementally as end-users subscribe to services. Along with the hierarchy of buses, this permits the system to “start small” and grow as large as is necessary. This keeps start-up costs low and aligns capital investment with revenues.
(c) Flexiblilty
The SMN permits quick response to changing service and technical requirements. Since key functionality is embedded in the bus interface circuits and standard hardware interfaces are defined, rapid customization of channel units for different applications and media are possible. The SMN is programmable via the network management system's APIs to encourage the development of third party applications. In a period of market uncertainty and unsettled technical standards, rather than being locked into a single technology which may not support all applications and may be made obsolete by new technical approaches, the SMN allows network operators to adapt to technical approaches.
(d) Interoperability
The SMN's IPE adapts foreign protocols to the internal system protocol and ensures interoperability of any attached devices, systems or networks.
(e) Reliability
The SMN's fault tolerant design provides for failsafe operation. The object-oriented nature of the network management system allows for new application development while protecting existing software modules, system performance, and integrity.
For a more complete description of some of the terminology and technical details of devices and architecture referred to herein, reference is made to the text
Computer Networks
2nd Edition, Andrew S. Tanenbaum, PTR Prentice Hal © 1989 incorporated herein in its entirety.


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