SWITCHING SYSTEM

Abstract: A switching system (SW) to transfer packets of digital signals having a header containing routing information from a plurality of input terminals (R1 to R16) to a plurality of output terminals (T1 to T16), the destination output terminal for a packet being selected according to the routing information of this packet. The system includes a plurality of memories (M1 to M8) which are each subdivided into a plurality of storage areas each associated to a respective output terminal, receiver circuits (RC1 to RC16) to divide each received packet into a plurality of sub-packets, control circuits (CC1 to CC8) and transmitter circuits (TC1 to TC16) to rebuilt a packet from its sub-packets. Under the control of the control circuits operating according to the routing information of a packet the sub-packets belonging to this packet are transmitted to respective ones of the memories and loaded into the storage area thereof corresponding to the destination output terminal.

Description: SWITCHING SYSTEM The present invention relates to a switching system including - a plurality of input terminals connected to receiver means able to receive packets of digital signals therefrom and to divide each of said packets into a plurality of sub-packets; - control means to which at least one sub-packet of each of said packets and containing routing information is applied; - a plurality of memories allocated to respective sub-packets of each of said packets, said sub-packets being loaded into and unloaded from said memories under the control of said control means; - transmitter means which are connected to a plurality of output terminals and to which said unloaded sub-packets are supplied, said transmitter means being able to rebuild a packet from its sub-packets and to transmit said rebuilt packet to at least one terminal indicated by said routing information. Such a switching system enabling to use lower speed circuits working in parallel on each sub-packet, is already known in the art, e.g. from the published French patent application No 2538976 and from the article "Reseaux de transfert en videocommunication - La commutation de paquets" by M. Servel and A. Thomas published in "L'echo des RECHERCHES" , No 115, 1st quarter 1984, pages 33 to 0. In this system a counter forming part of the control means generates a write pointer which is identical for each memory and indicates the location wherein an incoming sub-packet has to be loaded. This write pointer is increased at the rhythm of a time base also forming part of the control means. As a result, homologous sub-packets of the incoming packets are loaded sequentially in the corresponding memories. The control means also include a plurality of queues, one for each output terminal, containing the addresses of the memory locations wherein sub-packets intended for the corresponding output terminal are loaded, the latter being available to the control means from the routing information. To output the sub—packets, each of these queues is read sequentially, and the contents of the addressed locations in the memories are transmitted to the transmitter means and so further to the intended output terminals. A possible drawback of this known system is that if sub-packets would not be read sufficiently fast, they would be overwritten the next time the write pointer addresses the location containing them. As a consequence not only the previously stored sub-packets of a packet would be lost, but moreover when later on their address is read from the queue wrong sub-packets, i.e. those then present in that memory location, would be sent to the corresponding output terminal. This may impose f.i. restrictions on the allowable traffic on any output terminal in function of the maximum possible reading speed. The invention is based on the insight that it is possible to provide a system of the above type but without imposing such speed requirements while permitting the use of simpler control means. This is achieved due the fact that each of said memories is subdivided into a plurality of storage areas allocated to respective ones of said output terminals and that said control means, under the control of said routing information, load the sub-packets of a packet to be transmitted to said indicated output terminal into the storage areas allocated thereto. In this way, each output terminal having its allocated storage area, contrary to the case outlined above the sub-pack.ets intended for a particular output terminal can never be wrongly routed. Furthermore, the control means require no queues for storing the addresses of the sub-packets in the memories so that they are relatively simple. Another characteristic feature of the present invention is that said receiver means include a plurality of receiver circuits to which a respective input terminal is connected and which are each able to divide a packet received from said connected input terminal into said plurality of sub-packets. In this way, a fault in a receiver circuit only affects the packets routed through this receiver circuit and not the transmission of other packets. The above mentioned and other objects and features of the invention will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood by referring to the following description of an embodiment taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing in which : Fig. 1 represents a switching system SW according to the invention, and Fig. 2 represents the control circuit CC1 of Fig. 1 in more detail. A plurality of switching systems SW such as the one shown in Fig. 1 are for instance interconnected to constitute the switching network of a telecommunication system of the type generally known as Broadband Integrated Services Data Network CB-ISDN) to which user stations are coupled via Asynchronous Time Division CATD) transmission links. The bitrate at which the signals are transferred on these transmission links may be freely chosen with a maximum value of about 560 Megabits/second. These signals may be voice, computer data or video and are transmitted through the switching systems SW, of the switching network under the form of packets of digital signals. Each packet has a fixed length of, e.g. 8 x 16 = 128 bits, and comprises a header and data. The switching system SW has 16 input terminals Rl to R16 and 16 output terminals Tl to T16 of which only the first Rl/Tl and the last R16/T16 ones are shown in Fig. I, and includes control means CM mainly adapted to control the transfer packets of digital signals supplied to any of the input terminals R1/R16 to one or more Cin case of broadcasting) of the output terminals Tl to T16 according to routing information contained in the header of these packets. Each input terminal R1/R16 is coupled to the control means CM via a respective receiver circuit RCl/RC16f whilst these control means CM are themselves coupled to the output terminals Tl to T16 via respective transmitter circuits TCI to TC16. More particularlyf each receiver circuit RC1/RC16 includes a synchronization circuit to perform packet synchronization or frame alignment of the incoming bit stream) an input queue to temporarily store the incoming packets prior to sending them to the control means CM, a processor to control the operation of the different parts of this receiver circuitf and a routing table to interpret the received routing information in order to separate control packets intended for the processor of the receiver circuit from data packets intended for a transmitter circuit TC1/TC16. When the routing information included in the header of a packet does not explicitly contain the address- of a transmitter circuit TC1/TC16, the routing table is able to translate this information into this address. All these parts of the receiver circuits RCI to RC16 are described in more detail in the above mentioned Belgian patent No 904.100 and are " "therefore not shown in Fig. 1. Each receiver circuit RC1/RC16 further includes a circuit (not shown) to split up each incoming packet into 8 sub-packets of equal length, e. g. 16 bits, which are applied to 8 distinct control circuits CCl to CC8 forming part of "the control means CM and of which only the first CCl and the last CC8 ones are shown in Fig. 1. This transfer of sub-packets is done via 8 input lines each linking a receiver circuit RC1/RC16 to the 8 control circuits CCl to CC8 via respective terminals 11/116 thereof. In other words, each control circuit CC1/CC8 is connected to the 16 receiver circuits RCI to RC16 via its terminals II to 116 through which it can receive the incoming sub-packets at a reduced bitrate, e.g. 560 / 8 = 70 Megabits/second. The control circuits CCl to CC8 are connected to a memory MM which is subdivided into 8 sub-memories Ml to M8 of equal sizes. Each control circuit CC1/CC8 is only connected to one corresponding sub-memory M1/M8 by 16 write lines to load sub-packets therein via a write terminal W and by 16 read lines to unload sub-packets therefrom via a read terminal R. Additionally, the control circuit CCl has an address terminal A which is connected in parallel to all the sub-memories Ml to M8 via 16 address lines to indicate to these sub-memories where the sub-packets transferred through the write or read lines of the 8 control circuits have to be loaded or unloaded respectively. In practice, each sub-memory M1/M8 is subdivided into 16 identical storage areas each allocated to distinct transmitter circuits TC1/TC16. Finally, each control circuit CC1/CC8 is also connected to these 16 transmitter circuits TCI to TC16 by 16 output lines via respective terminals 01/016 through which the sub-packets unloaded from the sub-memories Ml to M8 are transferred to the destination transmitter circuit TC1/TC16. In each transmitter circuit TC1/TC16 the 8 sub—packets received from the 8 different control circuits CCl to CC8 are concatenated to rebuild the original packets of digital signals prior to transferring them further via its output terminal T1/T16. The digital signals are unloaded from the sub-memories Ml to M8 of the memory MM at a speed which is proportional to the bitrate at which the packets are transmitted via the output terminals Tl to T16 to the devices connected to these terminals. The control circuit CCl is represented in Fig. 2 wherein only the first 11/01 and the last 116/016 of its input and output terminals respectively and the circuits associated thereto are shown. It includes a 16-bit address bus AB, a 16-bit write bus WB, a 16-bit read bus RB and a 4-bit pointer bus PB to transfer digital signals and of which AB, WB and RB are connected to the respective terminals A, W and R mentioned above, whilst PB is an internal bus to transfer relative addresses of transmitter circuits TC1/TC16 as will be described below. The terminals II to 116 of the control circuit CCl are coupled to the busses WB and PB via respective input circuits IC1 to IC16f whilst the bus RB is coupled to the terminals 01 to 016 of CCl via output circuits 0C1 to 0C16. Each input circuit IC1/IC16 includes a 16-bit shift register IR16 to which the corresponding input terminal 11/116 is connected and which is able to store the sub-packets incoming from the corresponding receiver circuit RC1/RC16. When the shift register IR16 is full. the sub-packet stored therein is transferred to a 16-bit latch circuit IL16 also included in each input circuit IC1/IC16. This sub-packet remains in the latch circuit IL16 until the write bus WB is ready to transfer it to the sub-memory Ml wherein it will be loaded at a location indicated by the data then present on the pointer bus PB. These latter data are obtained in the following way. The first 4 bits of the sub-packet stored in the shift register IR16 are also transferred to a 4-bit latch circuit L4 also forming part of each input circuit IC1/IC16. From there, these 4 bits are transferred to a pointer control circuit PC included in CCl and more particularly to a write pointer table WPT thereof via a terminal WT. In fact, these 4 bits form part of the routing information of the packet and identify the relative address 1 to 16 of the transmitter circuit TCI to TC16 to which this sub-packet and thus also the whole packet is intended. The write pointer table WPT contains for each of the 16 storage areas of the sub-memory Ml a write pointer indicating the address of the next free location in that storage area, i.e. where the sub-packet should be loaded. When, for instance, 4,096 (4K) sub-packets can be loaded in each of the 16 storage areas of the sub-memory Ml, the complete address of a free location of the sub-memory Ml can be given by 16 bits. The first 4 bits indicate the number 1 to 16 of the storage area of the sub-memory Ml allocated to the destination transmitter circuit TC1/TC16, i.e. the relative address 1 to 16 of this transmitter circuit, whilst the 12 remaining bits indicate the next free location 1 to 4,096 (4K) in this storage area wherein the 16-bit sub-packet can be stored. This 16-bit address is then transmitted to the address bus AB via a terminal WA of the write pointer table WPT and so to the 16 address lines via the address terminal A of the control circuit CCl. This address is then indicated simultaneously to the 8 sub-memories Ml to M8 which are handled in parallel and wherein the sub-packets coming from the 8 control circuits CCl to CC8 are thus loaded in homologous locations. In practice, the contents of the 4-bit latch circuits L4 of the 16 input circuits IC1 to IC16 are successively transferred to the write pointer table WPT via the pointer bus PB and the terminal WT. As mentioned above, a 16-bit corresponding address is then generated by the write pointer table WPT, is loaded on the address bus AB and appears on the address terminal A of the control circuit CCl. At the same momentr the contents of the latch circuits IL16 of the corresponding input circuits IC1/IC16 of the 8 control circuits CCl to CC8 are loaded on the write bus WB thereof and appear at their write terminals W. The 8 sub-packets are then transferred to the corresponding sub-memories Ml to M8 at homologous locations. In synchronism with the bitrate at which the packets are transmitted further by the transmitter circuits TCI to TC16 through their respective output terminals Tl to T16f the sub-memories Ml to M8 are unloaded by the control circuits CCl to CC8. This unloading operation of the sub-memories Ml to M8 is performed under the control of a read pointer table RPT included in the pointer control circuit PC of the control circuit CCl. The read pointer table RPT contains for each transmitter circuit TC1/TC16 a read pointer indicating for the corresponding storage area the location of the sub-packet to be unloaded. As for the write operation of the sub-packets in the memory MM, all the sub-memories Ml to M8 are handled in parallel owing to their simultaneous addressing through the 16 address lines connected to the address terminal A of the control circuit CCl. In practice, the read pointer table RPT loads successively for each transmitter circuit TC1/TC16 a 16-bit address on the address bus AB via a terminal RA. This 16-bit address, obtained in a similar way as the one mentioned above, is transferred to all the sub-memories Ml to M8 via the address terminal A of the control circuit CCl. At that moment, the sub-packets contained in the sub-memories Ml to M8 are transferred through the 16 read lines connected to the read terminals R of the corresponding control circuits CCl to CC8 and so on their respective read busses RB. The sub-packets are then transferred to the output circuits 0C1/0C16 corresponding to the selected transmitter circuit TC1/TC16. More particularly, each sub-packet is loaded in a 16-bit latch circuit 0L16 included in each output circuit 0C1/0C16 of each control circuit CCl to CC8. From this 16-bit latch circuit 0L16, the sub-packet is transferred to a 16-bit shift register 0R16 also included in the output circuits 0C1 to 0C16 and from which it is sent to the destination transmitter circuit TC1/TC16 via the corresponding terminal 01/016. The pointer control circuit PC of the control circuit CCl further includes a queue control circuit QC coupled to the write pointer table WPT via a terminal WC and to the read pointer table RPT via a terminal RC. The purpose of this queue control circuit QC is to compare the values of the write pointer and of the read pointer of each storage area of the sub-memory Ml and thus in this way of the sub-memories M2 to M8 in order to detect empty or full storage areas and to take the appropriate decisions. For instance) in case of an empty storage area corresponding to a particular transmitter circuit TCl/TC16f a so-called synchronization packet may be generated and transferred to this circuit. It is to be noted thatf since the 16-bit write and read addresses are identical for the 8 sub-memories Ml to M8 and are generated by the control circuit CClf the 4-bit latch circuit L4 of the input circuits IC1 to IC16f the pointer bus PB > the pointer control circuit PC and the address bus AB as well as its address terminal A are only present in this control circuit CCl and not in the other control circuits CC2 to CC8. ^ The subdivision of the memory MM into 8 sub-memories Ml to M8 which are themselves subdivided into 16 storage areas each associated to a transmitter circuit TC1/TCI6 has the advantage of being easy to implement and of avoiding interactions between digital signals belonging to packets intended for different transmitter circuits TCI to TC16. The congestion on one transmitter circuit TCl/TC16f due for instance to an overflow of its storage area, does not affect the operation of the other transmitter circuits. However > to avoid this congestion problem) the storage areas and thus also the whole memory MM are generally over-dimensioned so that the size of the memory MM is larger than the one required for a particular application. One solution to this congestion problem consists in using the memory MM as a common pool wherein the space reserved for each transmitter circuit TC1/TC16 may be dynamically allocated. However this would require additional control functions to load and unload the memory MM. Also broadcasting packets to a fixed number of transmitter circuits TCI to TC16 would require an especially dedicated part of the memory MM wherein the packets remain stored until all the transmitter circuits TCI to TC16 participating in the broadcast connection have read them. Also here additional control functions would be necessary. Furthermore) it is obvious that in these two last cases the memory MM could no longer be subdivided into identical sub-memories such as Ml to M8. Consequently, it may be advantageous that the memory MM should be separate from the chip of the switching system since its size may then be independently adapted to the application. Actuallyf the memory MM is no longer necessary when the bitrate at which the packets are transmitted by the transmitter circuits TCI to TC16 via their respective output terminals Tl to T16 is sufficiently high to follow the rhythm at which these packets are received from the receiver circuits RCI to RC16. W+tile the principles of the invention have been described above in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation on the scope of the invention.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. Switching system CSW) including - a plurality of input terminals (Rl to R16) connected to receiver means (RCI to RC16) able to receive packets of digital signals therefrom and to divide each of said packets into a plurality (8) of sub-packets; - control means CCC1 to CC8) to which at least one sub—packet of each of said packets and containing routing information is applied, - a plurality of memories (Ml to M8) allocated to respective sub-packets of each of said packets) said sub-packets being loaded into and unloaded from said memories under the control of said control means; - transmitter means (TCI to TC16) which are connected to a plurality of output terminals (Tl to T16) and to which said unloaded sub-packets are supplied, said transmitter means being able to rebuild a packet from its sub-packets and to transmit said rebuilt packet to at least one terminal indicated by said routing information, characterized in that each of said memories (Ml to M8) is subdivided into a plurality (16) of storage areas allocated to respective ones of said output terminals (Tl to T16) and that said control means, under the control of said routing information) load the sub-packets of a packet to be transmitted to said indicated output terminal into the storage areas allocated thereto. 2. Switching system according to claim If characterized in that said control means (CCl to CC8) include a first control circuit (CCl) to which said one sub-packet containing said routing information is applied from said receiver means (RCI to RC16) and a plurality of second control circuits (CC2 to CC8) to which the remaining sub-packets of a packet are respectively applied from said receiver means (RCI to RC16). 3. Switching system according to claim 2, characterized in that said first control circuit (CCl) is associated to one (Ml) of said memories (Ml to M8) and that each of said second control circuits (CC2 to CC8) is associated to a respective memory (M2 to M8) of said plurality. 4. Switching system according to claim If characterized in that said plurality of memories (Ml to M8) are on a chip separated from the other circuits of said switching system (SW) . 5. Switching system according to claim If characterized in that said plurality of sub-packets of a packet are loaded and unloaded simultaneously and in an homologous way into said respective storage areas. 6. Switching system (SW) including - a plurality of input terminals (Rl to R16) connected to receiver means (RCI to RC16) able to receive packets of digital signals therefrom and to divide each of said packets into a plurality (8) of sub-packets; - control means (CCl to CC8) to which at least one sub-packet of each of said packets and containing routing information is applied; - a plurality of memories (Ml to M8) allocated to respective sub-packets of each of said packetSf said sub-packets being loaded into and unloaded from said memories under the control of said control means, - transmitter means (TCI to TC16) which are connected to a plurality of output terminals (Tl to T16) and to which said unloaded sub-packets are suppliedf said transmitter means being able to rebuild a packet from its sub-packets and to transmit said rebuilt packet to at least one terminal indicated by said routing information) characterized in that said receiver means (RCI to RC16) include a plurality of receiver circuits (RCI to RC16) to which a respective input terminal (Rl/16) is connected and which are each abl.e to divide a packet received from said connected input terminal into said plurality of sub-packets. 7. Switching system according to claims 2 and 6, characterized in that said first CCC1) and second (CC2 to CC8) control circuits each includes a plurality (16) of input buffer means (IL16) each able to latch a respective sub-packet received from said receiver circuits (RCI to RC16) prior to loading it into the storage areas corresponding to said intended output terminal (Tl/16). 8. Switching system according to claim 7, characterized in that said first control circuit (CCl) includes addressing means (L4, PB, PC, AB) able to extract from said routing information contained in said one sub-packet applied thereto the address of said intended output terminal (Tl/16) and to indicate to said plurality of memories (Ml to M8) the location of the respective homologous storage areas into which the sub-packets of a packet latched in the corresponding input buffer means (IL16) have to be loaded. 9. Switching system according to claim 8, characterized in that said addressing means (L4» PB, PC, AB) are able to indicate to said plurality of memories (Ml to M8) the location of the respective homologous storage areas from which the sub-packets of a packet have to be unloaded and transferred to corresponding output buffer means (0L16). 10. Switching system (SW) including - a plurality of input terminals (Rl to R16) connected to receiver means (RCI to RC16) able to receive packets of digital signals therefrom and to divide each of said packets into a plurality (8) of sub-packets; - control means (CCl to CC8) to which at least one sub-packet of each of said packets and containing routing information is applied; - a plurality of memories (Ml to M8) allocated to respective sub-pa-ckets of each of said packets, said sub-packets being loaded into and unloaded from said memories under the control of said control means; - transmitter means (TCI to TC16) which are connected to a plurality of output terminals (Tl to T16) and to which said unloaded sub-packets are supplied) said transmitter means being able to rebuild a packet from its sub-packets and to transmit said rebuilt packet to at least one terminal indicated by said routing information) characterized in that said transmitter means (TCI to TC16) include a plurality of transmitter circuits (TCI to TC16) each connected to a respective output terminal (Tl/16) and to which the sub-packets of a packet unloaded from corresponding homologous storage areas are applied and which is able to rebuild a packet from its sub-packets . 11. Switching system according to the claims 2 and 10f characterized in that said first (CCl) and second (CC2 to CC8) control circuits each includes a plurality (16) of output buffer means (0L16) each able to latch a respective sub-packet unloaded from the storage area corresponding to said intended output terminal (Tl/16) prior to transfer it to the corresponding transmitter circuit (TCI/16).

Inventors: DEBUYSSCHER PIERRE LEON, DEBUYSSCHER, PIERRE, LEON
Applicants: ALCATEL NV, BELL TELEPHONE MFG, ALCATEL N.V., BELL TELEPHONE MANUFACTURING COMPANY, NAAMLOZE VEN
Application year: 1988
Main classification: H04L11
IPC codes: H04L12