Patent ID: 7623539

Claim:
A segmentation and re-assembly apparatus for interfacing with a cell delay variation buffer and a reassembly memory buffer, said apparatus comprising: a header and sequence number processing module configured to obtain a plurality of cells; a cell delay variation buffer interface coupled to said header and sequence number processing module and configured to interface with the cell delay variation buffer; a reassembly processing module coupled to said header and sequence number processing module; and a reassembly memory buffer interface coupled to said reassembly processing module and configured to interface with the reassembly memory buffer; wherein: said header and sequence number processing module is configured to: cause a plurality of payloads from the plurality of cells to be stored in annotated form through said cell delay variation buffer interface, wherein a compressed representation of lost cells for storage is based on a number of lost cells field; cause a given one of the annotated payloads to be extracted through said cell delay variation buffer interface; and pass payload information of the given one of the annotated payloads to said reassembly processing module; and said reassembly processing module is configured to: cause the payload information to be stored through said reassembly memory buffer interface; and cause the payload information to be extracted through said reassembly memory buffer interface; said apparatus is for interfacing with a line side comprising a clocked, constant bit rate telephone system and a network side comprising a connectionless data-based network; said header and sequence number processing module is configured to interface with the network side; and said reassembly and processing module is configured to interface with the line side and causes the payload information to be extracted through said reassembly memory buffer interface in response to a request from the line side.