Communication process and switching element for carrying out this process
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorsPeter I. A. Barri, Luc O. Beyne
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Communication system and switching element used therein. To detect and remove partly established paths, a path release explorer packet is periodically transmitted from an outside node on established paths and each time it arrives in a node a check is made whether this node is a dead end for all directions. In the affirmative a path release packet is transmitted to a preceding node to possibly release the path to the dead end node. The switching element used in each node includes a first switching bus (TB, TM) to interconnect input ports (RX1/8) to output ports (TX1/8). One of these output ports (TX9) is connected to a second switching bus (SB) which has access to all input ports.
Claims25
A switching network comprising
- a plurality of switching nodes including first and second inside nodes and first and second outside nodes,
- interconnecting means for selectively establishing a plurality of interconnected communication path segments including an upstream said communication path segment connecting an inside node to an upstream switching node, and a downstream said communication path segment connecting the inside node to a downstream switching node, to thereby form a communication path extending in a downstream direction from the first outside node to the second outside node and extending in an upstream direction from the second outside node to the first outside node,
- exploring means associated with the upstream switching node for transmitting a path release explorer signal in the downstream direction via a previously established said upstream communication path segment,
- path checking means associated with the inside node and responsive to the reception of said path release explorer signal on said previously established upstream communication path segment for checking for any established said downstream communication path segments, and for selectively either transmitting said path release explorer signal in said downstream direction via a previously established said downstream communication path segment or for transmitting a path release signal in the upstream direction via said previously established upstream communication path segment if no such established downstream path segments exist, and
- upstream node releasing means associated with the upstream switching node and responsive to the reception of said path release signal on said upstream communication path segment for releasing said upstream communication path segment.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.