Patent ID: 7333426

Claim:
An asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) control system comprising: a) line interface circuitry for terminating n DSx lines and adapted to receive n incoming ATM over DSx traffic streams and transmit n outgoing ATM over DSx traffic streams corresponding to the n DSx lines; b) transmission convergence logic adapted to recover n incoming ATM cell streams from the n incoming ATM over DSx streams and generate the n outgoing ATM over DSx traffic streams to form n outgoing ATM cell streams; c) inverse multiplexing over ATM (IMA) logic adapted to combine the incoming n ATM cell streams to form an incoming, combined ATM cell stream and distribute ATM cells from an outgoing, combined ATM cell stream to create the n outgoing ATM cell streams; and d) a cross-connect adapted to operatively couple the IMA logic to redundant IMA logic in a redundant ATM control system to control switching between active and inactive states, wherein the IMA logic is further adapted to: a) send a switch of activity message to the redundant IMA logic and transition from the active to the inactive state when a fault is detected in the ATM control system; and b) receive the switch of activity message from the redundant IMA logic when in the inactive state and transition to the active state.