Patent ID: 7535823

Claim:
A TDM-to-packet module for use in an interworking peripheral module having a redundant TDM-to-packet module, the TDM-to-packet module comprising: a) a TDM interface adapted to provide bi-directional TDM communications with a module in the interworking peripheral module; b) a packet interface adapted to provide a bi-directional packet interface with a packet network; c) translation logic adapted to convert outgoing TDM traffic from the TDM interface to outgoing packets and incoming packets to incoming TDM traffic; d) a packet switch adapted to route the incoming packets from the packet interface to the translation logic and selectively route the outgoing packets to the packet interface or drop the outgoing packets; and e) control logic adapted to control the packet switch to route the outgoing packets to the packet interface when in an active mode and drop the outgoing packets when in an inactive mode.