Patent ID: 6385194
Filing Date: 2002-05-07
Classification: H04L,H04M,H04Q

Abstract:
An apparatus for controlling voice and data communications in an office, comprising:an interface to one or more telephone devices, wherein voice communications are provided at least in part with the telephone devices; a packet bus interface to one or more computers, wherein data communications are provided at least in part with the computers over a packet bus through the packet bus interface; a wide area network interface, wherein voice and data communications to or from the apparatus are provided from or to one or more telecommunications networks via the wide area network interface; a processor, wherein the processor controls the apparatus, including the control of voice and data communications over a plurality of communication paths in the apparatus; at least one TDM bus defining a predetermined number of channels and selectively coupling voice and data communication data streams to and/or from the one or more telecommunications networks, wherein the data streams include data communication data streams from the packet bus that are protocol processed and provided to the one or more telecommunications networks via the at least one TDM bus; a multiplexing circuit selectively providing data streams to and/or from particular channels of the at least one TDM bus; a digital signal processing resource (â€œDSPâ€ ), wherein the DSP comprises one or more digital signal processing elements, wherein the DSP receives one or more data streams via the multiplexing circuit that are provided to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein, under control of the processor, the DSP selectively taps into a first one of the one or more data streams provided by the multiplexing circuit to and/or from the at least one TDM bus, wherein the first one of the one or more data streams is directed over a first one of the communication paths in the apparatus and provides a voice communication that does not involve signal processing by the DSP while the first one of the one or more data streams is concurrently being processed by the DSP.