Patent ID: 6985491

Claim:
For use with a digital switch associated with a first terminal site of a communication network, said digital switch being operative to provide digital communication connectivity between a plurality of digital subscriber circuits coupled thereto and a digital communication link to a second terminal site, a multi-circuit line card that is installable in an individual line card slot of a backplane of said digital switch and comprising: a digital backplane interface configured to emulate a plurality of digital switch line cards that would otherwise be installed in respectively different line card slots of said backplane for providing digital communication service with said plurality of digital subscriber circuits served by said digital switch; and a digital communication link interface, coupled to said digital backplane interface, and being operative to extract digital subscriber loop (DSL) data signals provided by said digital backplane interface for application to said digital communication link in accordance with a time division multiplexed (TDM) data format, and thereby provide digital communication connectivity over said digital communication link between each of said plurality of digital subscriber circuits coupled to said digital switch and said second terminal site.