Patent ID: 7154747

Claim:
A multi-service platform system, comprising: a backplane; a switched fabric on the backplane; at least one of a VMEbus network and a PCI network coincident with the switched fabric on the backplane; a switch module having one of a 3U form factor and a 9U form factor, wherein the switch module is coupled to operate a central switching resource of the switched fabric; and a payload module having one of a 3U form factor and a 9U form factor, wherein the payload module is communicatively coupled with the backplane using the switched fabric and at least one of the VMEbus network and the PCI network, wherein the payload module is communicatively coupled to the switch module over the switched fabric, wherein a rear edge of the payload module includes at least one multi-gigabit connector coupled to communicatively interface the payload module to the backplane, and wherein the switched fabric and at least one of the VMEbus network and the PCI network are communicatively coupled with the payload module through the at least one multi-gigabit connector.