Distributed switching architecture

A point-to-multipoint communication system comprising:

• a plurality of remote communication terminals;
• a central switching terminal for communicating with said remote terminals over a plurality of communication channels including;
• a plurality of means for interfacing said central switching terminal with said communication channels, receiving inbound data frames from said remote terminals implementing a stored burst time plan for outputting outbound data frames to said remote terminals in a demand assigned fashion;
• processor means for controlling said means for interfacing and generating and providing said burst time plan to said means for interfacing;
• time slot interchange means for temporary storage of said data frames wherein inbound frames are stored in a predetermined order based upon the channel they are received from and outbound data are output in a sequence prescribed by said burst time plan;
• processor bus means for connecting said processor means to said means for interfacing and time slot interchange means to said means for interfacing;
• a time shared address bus means, connecting the time slot interchange means to a means for interfacing for providing said time slot interchange means with plan addresses contained in said burst time plans.

A method of point-to-multipoint communication between a plurality of remote terminals and a central station which receives inbound data frames and transmits outbound data frames made up of a plurality of time sockets with differing sources and destinations within said remote terminals comprising the steps;

• for inbound communication:
• each remote terminal successively transmitting time division multiple access inbound data frames to the central station;
• the central station receives the inbound data frames and loads them into a time slot interchange for temporary storage;
• for outbound communication:
• resequencing the stored time sockets into outbound data frames in accordance to a burst time plan;
• transmitting the burst time plan to the remote terminals;
• transmitting the outbound data frames in time division multiplexed fashion to all associated remote terminals;
• each remote terminal accessing the outbound data frames in accordance to the burst time plan and receiving only the data of those time sockets with a destination within said remote terminal.