US 6,285,670 B1Granted

Telecommunications switch with multiple ports for host-node communications

AssigneeExcel Switching Corporation

InventorsRajat Ghai, Peter Higgins

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

The system includes switching nodes with multiple ports for node-host communication, each port thereby connects the switching nodes to one or more hosts. One of the ports in a switching node is designated as a primary or master port and it connects the switching node to a default host. The default host controls all ports in the switching node and because applications on the default port are given the highest priority during switching node processing, the default host is useful for applications that require instant response from the switch. The other ports in the switching node are secondary ports and they connect the switching node to one or more secondary hosts simultaneously. The applications on the secondary hosts are given a lower priority than the default host's application. Therefore, the secondary hosts are useful for applications that do not require instant response from the switching nodes.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A communications network comprising:

A) a plurality of switching nodes each of which provides connections between the communications network and subscriber lines or other switching networks;
B) an internal network interconnecting the switching nodes for conveying switched telecommunications data between them;
C) a primary host computer and at least one secondary host computer that run supervisory host applications with different priorities, the host applications exercising supervisory control over the nodes, and the primary host computer running a host application with higher priority than the host applications on the secondary hosts;
D) a host network linking each host computer with the switching nodes;
E) each node having a host-node interface means comprising a plurality of host network ports for establishing virtual connections between applications running on one of said host computers and applications running on said node, and one of said host network ports being a primary port and the remaining host network ports being secondary ports for communications with the host computers connected to the host network;
F) means in each switching node for assigning higher priority to incoming messages received on the primary port than the messages received on a secondary port;
and
G) means for restricting the primary port to communications between the switching nodes and the primary host.

5 more elements

A method of processing incoming messages in a communications network, said network having at least one switching node connected by a host network to a primary host computer and to at least one secondary host computer, each host computer having software applications with different priorities that exercise supervisory control over the nodes, said method comprising the steps of:

implementing in each node, a host-node interface comprising a plurality of host network ports for establishing virtual connections between applications running on one of said host computers, and applications running on said node;
designating one of said host network ports to be a primary port and the remaining ports to be secondary ports;
assigning a higher processing priority in each node to incoming messages received on the primary port;
assigning a lower processing priority in each node to incoming messages received on a secondary port;
restricting the primary ports to communications with the primary host;
and
processing incoming messages received on the primary port at a higher priority than those received on a secondary port.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.