Patent ID: 6111880
Filing Date: 2000-08-29
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A communications switch having at least two independent sources for input and output, one source each of data in a received ATM format and an Ethernet format, each of the sources providing data cells comprised of a payload and associated header and tag data, said payload having an associated destination, said switch comprising:an addressable memory;first means for converting data from a first one of said sources from Ethernet to an internal ATM format;second means for converting data from a second one of said sources from a received ATM format to the internal ATM format;third means for converting the retrieved internal ATM format to Ethernet format;fourth means for converting the retrieved data from the internal ATM format to the received ATM format;a link controller for managing the storage and retrieval of the data in the internal ATM format to and from the memory, in a mapping from respective ones of the independent sources via a respective one of the first and second means for converting, and to respective ones of the independent sources via the third and fourth means for converting responsive to the associated destination for the respective data; andmeans for outputting the converted retrieved data to the respective associated destination responsive to the link controller.