Telephonic communications – Centralized switching system – Switching controlled in response to called station...
Patent
1999-02-12
2000-08-01
Zele, Krista
Telephonic communications
Centralized switching system
Switching controlled in response to called station...
379268, 379242, H04M 300
Patent
active
060978074
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of PCT application with International Application Number PCT/GB97/02802, filed Oct. 10, 1997, which claims the benefit of United Kingdom patent application number 9621248.5, filed Oct. 11, 1996.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a system for controlling the switching of communication paths in communication equipment. The present invention is particularly advantageous for use in connection orientated communication networks, such as telephone networks, or asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) networks. However, the present invention may also find application in other switching situations such as the controlling of data paths in connectionless computer networks
SUMMARY OF THE PRIOR ART
Connection orientated networks carry two distinct types of information. These are generally known as the control path and the data path, but the terms control plane and user plane are also sometimes used. In a telephone network as an example of a connection orientated network, the control path is responsible for the establishment and clearing of calls (also referred to as a signalling), fault reporting, for billing, and for the control of special features such as call forwarding and the use of special numbers. The data path is the speech, facsimile, or other information conveyed by the call. Connection orientated communications networks, such as telephone or ATM networks, need to provide a clear distinction between these types of communication. A set of protocols, interfaces and procedures are defined by the creator of the network, and are used by the network to implement all control functions of the network, including signalling and network management. That set will be referred to herein as the control architecture of the network.
At various locations around the network there are physical switches which permit information in the data path of the network to be routed appropriately. The control architecture then controls the operation of those switches to achieve the desired operations. In many networks, the control architecture is implemented directly on the physical switches of the network. However, schemes for separating the control function of the control architecture from the physical switches have been proposed. Such arrangements require an interface between the control unit which carries out the control functions and the physical switch. Such an interface can be private or public; a private interface is defined entirely by the creator of the switch, whereas a public interface allows the user of the network to purchase physical switches and then apply their own control architecture when building the network.
In general, each switch carries out switching between multiple input/output ports. Those ports are normally bi-directional, so that the port which acts as an input for one item of information at a particular time may act as an output at a different time.
With such switch, it is possible to define the "resources" of the switch. Those resources include the logical address space of each port. In an ATM network, examples of such logical address space includes virtual channel address space and virtual path address space. In addition, the resources may include the transmission capacities of each port, the buffers within the switch, and control operations known in ATM as traffic shapers and traffic policers.
In the known arrangements, each physical switch has a single controller which controls the actions of the switch. Thus, the switch can operate only on the basis of one control architecture. Furthermore, since only a single control architecture is operational, this control architecture is normally general purpose in nature, because it has to cater for the requirements of any application or set of applications.
The controller may run on a single processor or may be distributed across a plurality processors. In the latter case the individual parts of the controller will intercommunicate to ensure co-ordinated behavior.
SUMMAR
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Leslie Ian Malcolm
Van der Merwe Jacobus Erasmus
Chou Chien-Wei (Chris)
cplane, Inc.
Deane, Jr. William J.
Zele Krista
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