Communications switching system

A distributed control communication switching system for enabling transfer of voice, data and control signals between a plurality of ports, said system comprising:

• a time division multiplexed (TDM) bus for carrying said voice, data and control signals;
• at least one controller coupled to said bus, said controller for selectively coupling a fixed number of ports to said TDM bus, the number of ports in said system being dependent on the number of controllers coupled to said TDM bus;
• said controller outputting status information of said fixed number of ports on said TDM bus and monitoring said TDM bus for packets requesting data from said controller;
• said controller establishing a voice path and a data path between one of said fixed number of ports controlled by said controller and a port requesting communication with said one of said fixed number of ports controlled by said controller;
• said at least one controller including processing means for controlling said selective coupling of said fixed number of ports to said TDM bus such that control of said system is distributed to said controller;
• whereby the number of ports controlled by said system increases as the number of controllers coupled to said TDM bus increases.

A method for providing a time division multiplexed (TDM) bus for carrying voice data and control signals between a plurality of controllers, each controlling a fixed number of ports, said method comprising the steps of:

• assigning a fixed number of time slots to each of said plurality of controllers;
• defining a controller during its assigned time slots as an active controller;
• defining a controller during unassigned time slots as a passive controller ;
• outputting data requests by an active controller to one or more passive controllers;
• outputting data onto said TDM bus by passive controllers wherein a passive controller reads addresses placed on said TDM bus by active controllers and places data on said TDM bus when an address on said TDM bus matches a passive controller's address.