Time division multiplexed backplane with packet mode capability
US5615211A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 22, 1995 |
| Grant date | Mar 25, 1997 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 22, 2015 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04L49/351
- WIPO fieldDigital communication
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An integrated TDM-based/packet-based telecommunications backplane system includes a multi-bit backplane bus, a plurality of TDM data modules and packet based data modules coupled to the backplane bus, and a frame controller coupled to the bus which generates a frame by pre-assigning a first plurality of timeslots of a frame for the fixed rate TDM traffic, and allotting the remainder of the frame timeslots as a pool for packet-based traffic. The TDM data modules, which can include bit, and byte or nibble mode modules, place data on the backplane bus in their allotted time slots. The packet-based data modules contend for the pooled timeslots by raising a request on a "request" thread of the backplane bus when the packet module has a packet to send, and dropping the request and raising a busy flag on the "busy" thread while sending a data packet. In order to insure that only one packet-based data module will attempt to raise the request flag at a given time, the pooled timeslots are divided among the packet data sources for purposes of raising the request flag only. Thus, only one packet-based data module can raise its request flag during a given timeslot of the pool; although when se…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.