Patent ID: 6115381
Filing Date: 2000-09-05
Classification: H04B,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A device for interfacing an ATM network and a plurality of connection oriented lines comprising:a plurality of modules allowing direct access to an ATM network by at least one respective connection oriented line and arranged to accomplish, starting from a flow of digital data received on said connection oriented line, a segmentation of said data into ATM cells and, conversely, to reconstruct an outgoing data flow on at least one respective line starting from ATM cells; anda centralized unit connected to the modules tasked with manipulating ATM flows and managing access requests by said connection oriented lines and arranged to multiplex ATM cells received from said modules into a flow of cells which can be managed by said ATM network and, respectively, of demultiplexing a flow of cells managed by said ATM network into ATM cells each routed towards a respective module, said centralized unit dynamically assigning the access band available on the ATM network according to the access requests by said modules by handling individual requests as separate connections, the modules being connected to said centralized unit through a bus structure, said modules comprising, in a path from said centralized unit to said connection lines, a circuit for verifying the integrity of a frame into which ATM cell flows are organized and a circuit for the selective extraction from said frame of the data flow destined to the respective connection line, said centralized unit further comprising a path from said modules to said ATM network, a circuit for multiplexing the ATM cells received from respective modules, associated with a circuit for managing the transmission resources, and a circuit for mapping said multiplexed cells into a frame of ATM cells.