Patent ID: 7751433

Claim:
An apparatus for switching data packet frames of different types coming from at least two transport networks that use different transport protocol layers, said apparatus comprising: a switching module; at least two access cards, each of which is connected to a respective one of said networks and to said switching module, each access card including processing means arranged so that, on receiving a frame coming from a source network to which they are connected and for a destination network, they remove from said frame the transport protocol layers that it contains; said apparatus being characterized in that it further comprises means for adding an internal header to the payload data of at least one packet of said frame, prior to transmitting it to said switching module, said internal header comprising at least i) a channel identifier field containing a value representative of a channel assigned to the connection used by said frame on being set up, ii) a length field containing a value representative of the number of bytes contained in said packet, and iii) a type field containing values representative of characteristics of the payload data of said packet; and a transcoder card connected to said switching module and arranged so that, on receiving a frame coming from an access card, via said switching module, and for another access card, and including at least one internal header added to at least one payload data packet presenting first coding, it converts said first coding of the payload data into second coding, and then it transmits said frame to said switching module in order to transmit it to said other access card.