Patent ID: 6320863
Filing Date: 2001-11-20
Classification: H04J,H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A backplane architecture for dynamic synchronous transfer mode network, comprising:a backplane;a first connector, a second connector, a third connector and a fourth connector in operative engagement with the backplane, the connectors being connected to one another as a first dynamic synchronous transfer mode ring topology having a first node in operative engagement with the first connector, a second node in operative engagement with the second connector, a third node in operative engagement with the third connector and a fourth node in operative engagement with the fourth connector for receiving and transmitting frames on the back plane, the first ring topology using time division multiplexing of time cycles that are dividable into time slots, the first ring topology being adapted to transmit frames only in a first fiber direction;a second dynamic synchronous transfer mode ring topology having the first node, the second node, the third node and the fourth node in common with the first ring topology, the second ring topology being adapted to transmit frames only in a second fiber direction that is opposite the first fiber direction; anda first segment in the first ring topology extending from the fourth node to the first node;a second segment in the first ring topology extending from the second node to the third node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment;an extended DTM block token format describing the first and second segments; andthe fourth node being arranged to reserve block token capacity only on the first segment and the second node being arranged to reserve block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the same time slot over the first and second disjointed segments.