Backplane architecture for dynamic synchronous transfer mode

A method of transmitting frames on a backplane architecture, comprising:

• providing a backplane comprising a first dynamic synchronous transfer mode ring topology having a first connector in operative engagement with a first node, a second connector in operative engagement with a second node, a third connector in operative engagement with a third node and a fourth connector in operative engagement with a fourth node, the first ring topology having a time division multiplexing capacity of time cycles being dividable into time slots, the first ring topology having a first inner ring and a first outer ring, the first inner ring transmitting frames only in a first fiber direction, the first outer ring transmitting frames only in a second direction that is opposite the first direction;
• the first inner and outer ring topologies comprising a plurality of disjointed segments;
• the second node requesting a first set of time slots from the first node to transmit the first set of time slots in a first segment extending between the second node and the third node;
• the first node allocating the first set of time slots to the second node
• the fourth node requesting the first set of time slots from the first node to transmit the first set of time slots in a second segment extending between the fourth node and the first node, the second segment being disjointed from the first segment;
• and
• transmitting a throughput simultaneously in the same first set of time slots over the disjointed first and second segments.

A backplane architecture for dynamic synchronous transfer mode network, comprising:

• a first backplane;
• a first connector, a second connector, a third connector and a fourth connector in operative engagement with the first backplane,
• a second back plane;
• a fifth connector, a sixth connector, a seventh connector and a eighth connector in operative engagement with the second back plane;
• the third connector of the first backplane being in operative engagement with the fifth connector of the second back plane;
• the connectors being connected to one another as a first dynamic synchronous transfer mode ring topology having a first node in operative engagement with the first connector, a second node in operative engagement with the second connector, a third node in operative engagement with the third connector, a fourth node in operative engagement with the fourth connector, a fifth node in operative engagement with the fifth connector, a sixth node in operative engagement with the sixth connector, a seventh node in operative engagement with the seventh connector and an eighth node in operative engagement with the eighth connector for receiving and transmitting frames on the first backplane and the second backplane, the first ring topology using time division multiplexing of time cycles that are dividable into time slots, the first ring topology being adapted to transmit frames only in a first fiber direction;
• a second dynamic synchronous transfer mode ring topology having the first node, the second node, the third node, the fourth node, the fifth node, the sixth node, the seventh node and the eighth node in common with the first ring topology, the second ring topology being adapted to transmit frames only in a second fiber direction that is opposite the first fiber direction;
• and
• a first segment in the first ring topology extending from the fourth node to the first node;
• a second segment in the first ring topology extending from the second node to the third node so that the second segment is disjointed from the first segment;
• an extended DTM block token format describing the first and second segments;
• and
• the fourth node being arranged to reserve block token capacity only on the first segment and the second node being arranged to reserve block token capacity only on the second segment to permit a simultaneous transmission in the same time slot over the first and second disjointed segments.