Multichannel network, network connection, and switching apparatus

Abstract

A multichannel network through which data of telephone line, animation data, etc. are transmitted and received can continuously transfer data by connecting data between a source and a destination through a substantially exclusive connection although there arises a relaying, branching, or replicating process depending on the data type such as documents, voice, animation, etc. Furthermore, by assigning physically respective channels to different data types, interference by other channels can be successfully avoided. That is, a server is connected to a plurality of clients which can be personal computers PC 1 through PC 4 through cables b through e. The personal computers PC 1 through PC 4 are connected to push-button telephones T1 through T4 through cables j through m. In the cables b through e, different twisted pair lines are used for each channel so that communications data for a personal computer and voice data for a telephone are transmitted through different channels, thereby successfully avoiding discontinuous voice data and defective communications data. Furthermore, cables can be easily managed, and a less costly system can be realized.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.