Patent ID: 6819664
Filing Date: 2004-11-16
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A communication system for a local area network (LAN), comprising:a private multi-media system for connecting to first and second networks; a switching unit for coupling a plurality of terminals to the private multi-media system, wherein the first network is a public telephone network and the second network is one of a dedicated network and the Internet, and wherein the private multi-media system performs a protocol conversion to couple the public telephone network to the LAN and to couple the second network to the LAN, and wherein the private multi-media system comprises: an ethernet interface block for commonly connecting N number of ports defining four ethernet transfer lines as a single port; a network interface connection unit for interfacing with the LAN and the second network; a bus connection unit for coupling to gateway modules; a plurality of media access control (MAC) address tables to store MAC addresses of a destination gateway module; a plurality of MAC layer switches to communicate between the network interface connection unit and the bus connection unit referring to the MAC addresses stored in the MAC address tables; and a personal computer interface (PCI) bus arbitrator to enable the MAC unit to access a PCI bus.