Patent ID: 6980557

Claim:
A communications system, comprising: a packet-oriented communication network; a plurality of communication terminals, connected to the packet-oriented communication network via a plurality of hubs; and a switching system connected to the packet-oriented communication network, the switching system including: a broadband access unit, a central unit, a plurality of conversion units and a switching matrix module, wherein the broadband access unit is connected to the central unit via a time-slot-oriented link and is further connected to the packet-oriented communication network via at least one packet-oriented network access interface, wherein the plurality of conversion units are allocated to the plurality of hubs via which a bidirectional conversion between a data format of the packet-oriented communication network and a time-slot-oriented data format is effected, and wherein the switching matrix module combines data to be transmitted to the plurality of hubs from the conversion units for transmission via the packet-oriented network access interface.