Patent ID: 6055237
Filing Date: 2000-04-25
Classification: H04L,H04Q

Abstract:
A communications network comprising:A. a plurality of switching nodes;B. at least one host;C. an internal network interconnecting said switching nodes for conveying switched telecommunications data between them;D. a host network physically lining each host and said switching nodes;E. for each host a virtual connection on said host network, said virtual connection linking the host and at least one of said switching nodes, each switching node linked to a host node by a virtual connection being a host node and all other switching nodes being slave nodes; and whereinF. each slave node is associated with a host node;G. each host supervising the switching functions of(1) each host node linked thereto by a virtual connection and(2) each slave node associated with that host node, andH. all supervisory communications between a host and a slave node relating to telecommunications switch operations are effected through(1) the virtual connection between the host and the host node associated with that slave node, and(2) a message, over the host network, between the host node and the slave node.