Patent ID: 6202082
Filing Date: 2001-03-13
Classification: H04J

Abstract:
A trunk transmission network comprising:a plurality of nodes connected via physical transmission lines;a plurality of paths for transmitting information signals being set up on said physical transmission lines between said nodes;for an information signal which is to be transmitted from one of the plurality of nodes termed a source node to another of the plurality of nodes termed a destination node, each path connects the source node and the destination node either directly or via other nodes;said paths which are between source and destination node pairs being set up on the basis of pre-classification into higher service class paths in which any loss of information occurring in that path is restored, and lower service class paths which permit loss of information to occur in the path; andeach node including means which, when that node is a source node, recognizes the service class of the information signal to be sent to the destination node and sets up a path corresponding to that service class to thereby provide distributed control of path setup.