Patent ID: 7974274

Claim:
A telecommunication system comprising: a TDM bus; a system TDM interface, coupled to the TDM bus, to transmit TDM signals on the TDM bus and to receive TDM signals from the TDM bus; a packet bus; a system packet communication interface, coupled to the packet bus, to place data packet communication cells on the packet bus and to receive data packet communication cells from the packet bus, the data packet communication cells including IP packets; a modular conversion unit connected to and between each of the TDM bus and the packet bus, the modular conversion unit performing bi-directional TDM-packet format conversion between the system TDM interface and the system packet communication interface via the buses; and a system controller to transmit and receive system control signals via the packet bus to the system packet communication interface and to the modular conversion unit, and to transmit and receive system control signals to the system TDM interface via a separate dedicated TDM control signal link.