Patent ID: 7830864

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a media gateway that includes: a sub-element processing (SEP) module configured to perform sub-element processing for each of a plurality of data elements included in data being switched between ones of a plurality of transmission links, wherein the SEP module is integral to an integrated switching means configured to interface with each of the plurality of transmission links; wherein the data includes wireless packet data, wireless non-packet data, wireline packet data and wireline non-packet data; wherein the sub-element processing includes at least one of extracting and bundling at least one of voice data, encoding data and signaling data corresponding to one of a plurality of channels or sessions bundled within individual ones of the plurality of data elements; wherein the sub-element processing further includes processing data of a particular session or channel payload within a data element comprising multiple payloads of multiple different sessions or channels, wherein each of the multiple payloads is processed on a separate per-session basis and wherein the SEP module is coupled to, in the media gateway, at least one digital signal processor (DSP) that performs a separate per-session data element service on each of the multiple different sessions or channels in the data element; wherein the sub-element processing further includes converting the data of at least one of the multiple different sessions or channels in the data element between a packet format and a non-packet format; and wherein the integrated switching means includes at least one digital signal processor (DSP) configured to: perform data element conversion on a per-session basis to convert the wireless packet data, the wireless non-packet data, the wireline packet data and the wireline non-packet data into common data having a common protocol; and cooperate with a common data switching matrix and the SEP module to: switch the wireless and wireline packet data from a packet data switching matrix to a non-packet data switching matrix on a per-session basis; and switch the wireless and wireline non-packet data from the non-packet data switching matrix to the packet data switching matrix on a per-session basis.