Communications backbone, a method of providing a communications backbone and a telecommunication network employing the backbone and the method

Abstract

The present invention provides a communications backbone for connecting first and second telecommunication nodes. In one embodiment, the communications backbone includes a first time division multiplexed gateway associated with the first telecommunication node and configured to be directly connected to a packet-switched network. Additionally, the communications backbone also includes a second time division multiplexed gateway associated with the second telecommunication node and configured to be directly connected to the packet-switched network to form a communications trunk between the first and second telecommunication nodes.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.