Patent ID: 6704307
Filing Date: 2004-03-09
Classification: H04J,H04Q

Abstract:
A switching unit, comprising:a plurality of port cards, each port card comprising at least one first M-way commutator and a corresponding number of second M-way commutators, wherein the first M-way commutators over all the port cards range from a 1st first M-way commutator to an Nth first M-way commutator and wherein the second M-way commutators over all the port cards range from a 1st second M-way commutator to an Nth second M-way commutator; and a plurality of switch cards, each switch card comprising at least one first N-way commutator and a corresponding number of second N-way commutators, wherein the first N-way commutators over all the switch cards range from a 1st first N-way commutator to an Mth first N-way commutator and wherein the second N-way commutators over all the switch cards range from a 1st second N-way commutator to an Mth second N-way commutator, each switch card further comprising a time switch for controllably interchanging portions of signals present at the outputs of the at least one first N-way commutator on that switch card, and for providing switched signals to the inputs of the at least one second N-way commutator on that switch card; wherein the mth output of the nth first M-way commutator is connected to the nth input of the mth first N-way commutator and wherein the nth output of the mth second N-way commutator is connected to the mth input of the nth second M-way commutator, for 1<=m<=M and 1<=n<=N.