Patent ID: 6141342
Filing Date: 2000-10-31
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
An apparatus for completing inter-switch calls in an Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) transit trunk subnetwork associated with a switched telephone network, comprising:ATM facilities adapted to transfer bearer traffic related to the inter-switch calls between switches in the transit trunk subnetwork;an interface positioned between each of the switches and the ATM facilities, the interfaces being adapted to convert pulse code modulated data to ATM cells and vice versa;a single large trunk group interconnecting each of the respective switches to each of the respective interfaces, the single large trunk group being used to route all calls completed using the ATM facilities; anda call manager for the transit trunk subnetwork associated with the ATM facilities and a signaling system of the switched telephone network, the call manager being adapted to receive inter-switch call control messages from each of the switches via the signaling system and to coordinate the establishment of connections through the ATM facilities to effect the transfer of the bearer traffic between the interfaces, whereby the inter-switch calls are routed by each switch connected to the transit trunk subnetwork to the single large trunk group and the call manager routes the inter-switch calls to a terminating one of the switches using information in the call control messages and translation and routing tables for all switches in the transit trunk subnetwork.