Patent ID: 6667973
Filing Date: 2003-12-23
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04Q,Y10S

Abstract:
A SONET network interface for interconnecting at least one high speed unit (HSU) with at least two low speed interface units (LSUs) to enable transmission of signals therebetween, the interface comprising:a bus for interfacing the at least one HSU unit with each of the at least two LSU units to enable transmission of signals from each of the at least two LSUs to the at least one HSU, and reception of the signals from the at least one LSU to each of the at least two LSUs; and a backplane connected to the bus and having at least one bi-directional time slots for performing full time slot interchange between the at least two LSUs, wherein any of the at least two LSUs can read received data directly from one of the at least one bi-directional time slots and can place its transmit data into any other of the at least one bi-directional time slots for communication with another of the at least two LSUs without exchanging the received and/or transmit data with the at least one HSU, wherein the received and/or transmit data is transmitted between the LSUs via at least one segmented bus whereby said at least one segmented bus is connected to at least one HSU acting as a physical bridge between the segments, thereby allowing the LSUs on different segments to exchange data.