Systems for transferring various data types across an ATM network

A communications system comprising:

• at least one processing unit comprising semiconductor logic configured to transmit and received a data cell comprising:
• a payload portion for storing data, the data being voice data;
• a header portion comprising:
• a mapping field for mapping the data cell to a physical layer port;
• a sequence number field for sequentially numbering the data cell with respect to other cells;
• a frame amount field for defining the number of frames of voice data stored in the payload portion;
• and
• a time slot amount field for defining a number of time slots per frame stored in the payload.

A communications system comprising:

• at least one processing unit comprising semiconductor logic configured to transmit and received a data cell comprising:
• a payload portion for storing the packet data, the data being bit-oriented;
• a header portion comprising:
• an end-of-data field for indicating an end of data for a channel;
• a partial flag field for properly completing an incomplete byte with a portion of a predetermined flag pattern;
• and
• a mapping field for mapping the data cell to a packet channel number.