Patent Document ID: 4760395
Application ID: 06881359
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. An arrangement for enabling communication between any two pieces of equipment, such as terminals and processors, in a communications network comprising one specific network architecture (ICNA), said pieces of equipment having a network architecture of either said specific network architecture (ICNA) or another network architecture within a group of at least two different network architectures (SNA, DCNA, DECNET), said communications network including: selector means for establishing connections between various pieces of equipment (V), conversion equipment (CEI, CDI, CSI, CID, CIE) and path selection equipment (RJ, RS, RD, RE), both said conversion equipment and path selection equipment being connected to the selector means, first means for establishing a connection between pieces of equipment having the same network architecture via the selector means without any conversion equipment, second means for establishing a connection between pieces of equipment, a first one of which having the specific network architecture (ICNA) and a second having a second network architecture (SNA, DCNA, or DECNET), said second means establishing said connection via the selector means and a single piece of conversion equipment (e.g. CID), and third means for establishing a connection between pieces of equipment having two different network architectures, other than the specific network architecture (SNA, DCNA, DENET, etc.), said third means establishing said connection successively via the selector means, a first piece of conversion equipment, the selector means again and a second piece of conversion equipment (CSI, CID).