Patent ID: 6137798
Filing Date: 2000-10-24
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A data communication system comprising:a plurality of interworking units for accommodating local area networks, said interworking units segmenting a packet received from said local area networks into a plurality of cells for transmission to an asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) network, said cells containing a connectionless address designating one of said local area networks, a virtual path identifier (VPI) designating a permanent virtual connection, and a virtual channel identifier (VCI) identifying said packet; andthe ATM network comprising a plurality of cross-connect nodes interconnected by communication links, said cross-connect nodes establishing a plurality of said permanent virtual connections between said interworking units and said nodes and between said nodes in pairs, receiving the cells from the interworking units and routing the cells having VCIs of equal value through the permanent virtual connections to said one of the interworking units according to the connectionless address and the VPI contained in the cells,said one of the interworking units assembling the cells having VCIs of equal value into a packet and routing the packet to said one of the local area networks according to the connectionless address transmitted by the packet.