Telecommunications – Radiotelephone system – Special service
Reexamination Certificate
2001-08-29
2004-11-09
Smith, Creighton (Department: 2684)
Telecommunications
Radiotelephone system
Special service
Reexamination Certificate
active
06816726
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the transfer of different data types in a telecommunications system, and more particularly to the routing of such data between a network connectable to the telecommunications system and subscriber terminals of the telecommunications system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a typical telecommunications system, a subscriber terminal may be located at a subscriber's premises for handling transfer of data to and from that subscriber. One or more lines may be provided from the subscriber terminal for supporting one or more items of telecommunications equipment located at the subscriber's premises. Alternatively, the subscriber terminal may be an integral part of the item of telecommunications equipment. Further, a central terminal may be provided for controlling a number of subscriber terminals, and in particular for managing transfer of data between a subscriber terminal and other components of a telecommunications network.
Each subscriber terminal communicates with the central terminal via a transmission medium, for example copper wires, optical fibres, etc for a wired system, or some form of radio resource for a wireless system. In accordance with known techniques, multiple communication channels may be arranged to utilise the transmission medium for the transmission of signals to and from the subscriber terminal. For example, in a “Code Division Multiple Access” (CDMA) system, signals may be transmitted over the transmission medium on a particular frequency channel, and this frequency channel may be partitioned by applying different orthogonal codes to signals to be transmitted on that frequency channel. Signals to which an orthogonal code has been applied can be considered as being transmitted over a corresponding orthogonal communication channel utilising the particular frequency channel. Similarly, in a “Time Division Multiple Access” (TDMA) system, a particular frequency channel can be partitioned in the time domain, such that a number of different signals can be transmitted in different time slots, the time slots forming multiple communication channels utilising the particular frequency channel. As another example, in a “Frequency Division Multiple Access” (FDMA) system, a band of frequencies may be partitioned to form a number of communication channels at particular frequencies, thereby enabling multiple signals to be transmitted over the transmission medium.
Traditionally, such telecommunications systems have been used to handle voice calls to and from the subscriber terminals, and transport mechanisms have been developed for routing the voice data for such voice calls through the telecommunications system in an efficient manner.
However, nowadays, there is an ever increasing demand for such telecommunications systems to be able to transmit different types of data, for example Internet data, leased line data, basic rate ISDN data, etc., in addition to, or instead of, voice data. Whichever transport mechanism is chosen for the telecommunications system will generally be more efficient for certain data types than for others, given the differences between the types of data.
As the demand for data to be transmitted at higher and higher speeds increases, it is becoming desirable to provide a telecommunications system which facilitates more efficient transmission of data through the telecommunications system.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Viewed from a first aspect, the present invention provides a telecommunications system for connecting to a network and for routing data of a plurality of different data types between the network and subscriber terminals of the telecommunications system, the subscriber terminals being connectable to a central terminal of the telecommunications system via a transmission medium, the telecommunications system providing a number of communication channels arranged to utilise the transmission medium for transmission of data between the central terminal and the subscriber terminals, the telecommunications system comprising: a transmitter having first transmission processing logic for employing a first transport mechanism to transmit data and second transmission processing logic for employing a second transport mechanism to transmit data; a switching element for routing data for transmission to either the first or second transmission processing logic dependent on first predetermined criteria, the first predetermined criteria comprising at least the data type of the data for transmission; and resource allocation logic for determining based on second predetermined criteria which of the communication channels to allocate for use by the first transmission processing logic and which of the communication channels to allocate for use by the second transmission processing logic.
Typical known telecommunications systems utilise the same transport mechanism for handling transfer of data irrespective of its data type. Often, the transport mechanism has been developed with voice data in mind. However, unlike voice calls which are delay sensitive and thus require continuous operation and relatively constant bit rates, transfer of certain other data types (e.g. Internet data) is often bursty, and typically is not delay sensitive, and accordingly the transport mechanisms provided for handling voice calls are often not particularly efficient at handling transfer of other types of data.
In accordance with the present invention, a transmitter is provided that has both first transmission processing logic for employing a first transport mechanism to transmit data, and second transmission processing logic for employing a second transport mechanism to transmit data. A switching element is then provided to route data for transmission to either the first or second transmission processing logic dependent on first predetermined criteria, such as data type of the data for transmission. Preferably, there will be a predetermined relationship between the data type and the most appropriate transport mechanism to be used for that data type, and accordingly, unless other predetermined criteria dictate otherwise, the switching element will route the data to the first or second transmission processing logic based on whether data of that data type is best transmitted using the first transport mechanism or the second transport mechanism, respectively.
Hence, as an example, the first transport mechanism may be more suited for data types that form continuous data sequences, for example voice data, or leased line data, whereas the second transport mechanism may be more suited to more bursty data, such as Internet Protocol (IP) data. Further, it should be noted that certain forms of data, such as ISDN data, may actually have more than one basic data type. For example, ISDN data can either be sent in a packet mode, or a continuous mode, and hence there will preferably be at least two data types for ISDN data to reflect the two different ISDN modes.
In addition to specifying the data types relatively coarsely based on their basic type, e.g. IP, voice, ISDN packet mode, etc, further parameters can be taken into account in order to specify data types at a finer granularity. For example, a number of data types may be specified using predetermined parameters, and then the corresponding parameters will be taken into account for any data to be routed by the switching element. Thus, as an example, a number of different data types for IP data may be specified using a priority parameter coded as follows:
Value
Priority
0
Normal
1
Minimise monetary cost
2
Maximise reliability
4
Maximise throughput
8
Minimise delay
Other parameters that may be used to define different data types are tolerance to absolute delay, tolerance to delay variation, and tolerance to packet loss (bit error rate). Voice/video services generally have a low tolerance to all of the above parameters, whereas best effort IP data is generally more tolerant to all of the above parameters. It will be appreciated that the above identified paramete
Cohen Jeremy Laurence
Lysejko Martin
Airspan Networks Inc.
Haynes Mark A.
Haynes Beffel & Wolfeld LLP
Smith Creighton
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