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Assignee3Com Corporation
InventorsWing Cheong Chau, Darren Leu, Tze-jian Liu, Chandy Nilakantan, Jeffrey Kaiping Pao, Tsyr-Shya Joe Sun, Wayming Daniel Tai, Xiaohu Wang
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The present invention provides a modular architecture for connecting a plurality of telephone lines to a computer network. The invention binds a plurality of network access servers together so that they form a single system image to clients dialing into the plurality of network access servers. The invention operates by providing a tunneling mechanism for communication between the network access servers. The tunneling mechanism facilitates packet re-forwarding so that a call dialed into a physical port in a network access server can be re-forwarded through a logical port in another network access server. This allows a call to be routed through a physical port in a network access server even if no logical port is available in the network access server. Packet re-forwarding also allows multilink connections through physical ports in multiple network access servers to be routed through a single logical port in a network access server. Packet re-forwarding also provides support for spoofing; if the telephone line is torn down during spoofing, the logical port is maintained so that the connection may be reestablished through a physical port in another network access server. Finally, the present invention supports authentication across multiple network access servers using a security server, by allowing the network access servers to share authentication information.
In a system for coupling a plurality of telephone lines to a packet-switched network, including a plurality of modules coupled to the packet-switched network, modules in the plurality of modules including resources for facilitating communications between telephone lines in the plurality of telephone lines and the packet-switched network, each module in the plurality of modules including a plurality of physical ports and a plurality of logical ports, a method for distributing communications between telephone lines in the plurality of telephone lines and the packet-switched network across modules in the plurality of modules, comprising:
In a system for coupling a plurality of telephone lines to a packet-switched network, including a plurality of modules connected to a communication channel, modules in the plurality of modules including, a plurality of physical ports for facilitating communications with a plurality of telephone lines, and a plurality of logical ports for facilitating connections to the packet-switched network, a method for distributing communications between telephone lines in the plurality of telephone lines and the packet-switched network across modules in the plurality of modules, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.