Patent ID: 8223801

Claim:
A method of media data switching, comprising: receiving a plurality of media data units at an ingress port of a packet switch, wherein said ingress port of the packet switch is capable of supporting a combination of traffic types including packet type traffic and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) type traffic; determining a corresponding egress port of the packet switch for each of said plurality of media data units based on the routing information corresponding to each of said plurality of media data units; at the ingress port, directing each said plurality of media data units toward said corresponding egress port, wherein said directing includes reformatting media data units of multiple TDM circuits destined for the same egress port of the packet switch into a fixed size data unit (FSDU), adding a header to the FSDU to create an encapsulated packet, and directing each said encapsulated packet toward said corresponding egress port; at each said egress port, receiving and reformatting said encapsulated packets into a second plurality of media data units; and transmitting said second plurality of media data units to complete said media data switching.