Patent ID: 6111871
Filing Date: 2000-08-29
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
An ATM network for providing a virtual circuit for each end-to-end ATM call communicated over a physical link of the ATM network, each end-to-end call being carried by a sequence of ATM cells, wherein each cell has a header for providing switching information to the ATM network, the network comprising:(A) a cell compressor for compressing the header of the ATM cells before being communicated over the physical link to remove redundant header information between consecutive ATM cells of a given ATM call;(B) an enhanced ATM network for framing said ATM cells having compressed headers and the ATM cells having uncompressed headers in a physical link payload before being communicated over the physical link, said framing of said ATM cells having compressed headers for a given call being able to eliminate any header bytes from said ATM cells having compressed headers that provide information redundant to information in a header of a previous ATM cell of said call; and(C) an expander for expanding said compressed headers to their original form after being communicated over the physical link; said enhanced ATM network further comprising(a) an initiating ATM switch for switching compressed and uncompressed ATM cells from said cell compressor;(b) a framer/physical link means for mapping said compressed ATM cells and the uncompressed ATM cells into the payload and for transmitting said payload over a physical link, said framer/physical link means further comprising(i) a transmitting framer for mapping said compressed and uncompressed ATM cells into separate regions of said payload;(ii) a transmitter for transmitting said payload over a physical link, a receiver for receiving said payload transmitted on said physical link; and(iii) a receiving framer for restoring said header bytes being eliminated from said compressed headers and for sending said restored compressed ATM cells and said uncompressed ATM cells to said expander;(c) a terminating ATM switch for switching said compressed and uncompressed ATM cells to said expander;wherein said payload has a first pointer for indicating the beginning of the first cell of the sequence of cells in a given ATM call, and a second pointer for indicating the beginning of a block of compressed ATM cells in said given ATM call.