Patent ID: 6418481
Filing Date: 2002-07-09
Classification: H04L

Abstract:
A wiring hub for interconnecting a plurality of network components to form a local area network, each of said plurality of network components capable of sending and/or receiving digital communication signals, said wiring hub comprising:a data signal bus including a plurality of signal lines; a programmable switching mechanism connected to said data signal bus, said programmable switching mechanism including a plurality of ports each of which can be electrically coupled to a different one of the plurality of network components to pass digital communications signals to and receive digital communications signals fro m the network component to which it is coupled, said programmable switching mechanism interconnecting a selectable set of said plurality of ports together through said data signal bus and in any user selectable ordered sequence to form a ring network, the programmable switching mechanism also including a plurality of port module cards each of which includes a plurality of multiplexers equal in number to the number of ports on that card and each of which is associated with a different one of the ports on that card, each multiplexer on any given card being able to selectively electrically couple a signal from any one of said plurality of signal lines of said bus to the port with which that multiplexer is associated, each of said port module cards including a different subset of said plurality of ports wherein the switching capability of said programable switching mechanism is distributed among said plurality of port module cards, each of said port module cards also including a plurality of driver modules equal in number to the number of ports on that card and each of which is associated with a different one of the ports on that card, each driver module including a left driver and a right driver wherein said left drivers drive the left side of their assigned signal lines and said right drivers drive the right side of their assigned signal lines; and a backplane including said data signal bus and a plurality of connectors connecting to said data signal bus wherein each port module card is plugged into a different one of said plurality of connectors on said backplane.