Patent ID: 7573898

Claim:
A system having increased LAN service unit bandwidth comprising: a backplane including a plurality of data traffic communications connections operable to communicate data traffic; a line unit including a WAN interface and a first data traffic communications interface to the data traffic communications connections of the backplane, the line unit operable to communicate data traffic between the WAN interface and the first data traffic communications interface; a LAN service unit not included in the line unit and including a LAN interface, a data traffic communications interface to a bandwidth extender, and a second data traffic communications interface to the data traffic communications connections of the backplane, the LAN service unit operable to communicate a first portion of data traffic destined for or originating from the line unit between the LAN interface and the data traffic communications interface to the bandwidth extender and to communicate a second portion of data traffic destined for or originating from the line unit between the LAN interface and the second data traffic communications interface to the data traffic communications connections of the backplane; and the bandwidth extender not included in the line unit or the LAN service unit and including a data traffic communications interface to the LAN service unit and a third data traffic communications interface to the data traffic communications connections of the backplane, the bandwidth extender operable to communicate the first portion of data traffic destined for or originating from the line unit between the data traffic communications interface to the LAN service unit and the third data traffic communications interface to the data traffic communications connections of the backplane.