Optimized bandwidth allocation apparatus between circuit slots and packet bit stream in a communication network

Claim 2

Mechanism to be used in a communication network comprising a plurality of nodes, for exchanging non character coded information NCI and character coded information in frames comprising circuit slots which are assigned to circuit users on a call basis and the remaining part of which is assigned to packet switched type of traffic, said nodes comprising means for transporting the circuit user data in the assigned slots from originating users to destination users, said mechanism being characterized in that the network boundary nodes connected to boundary circuit users comprises interfacing means (30, 32) comprising: first means (30-T, 32-T) for dynamically and instantaneously qualifying the circuit slots, which means depending upon the user activity detected on a slot basis sets a qualifying bit to a first value indicating that the slot is assigned to a boundary circuit user or to a second value indicating that the slot is momentary free and may be assigned to the packet switched traffic, said qualifying bits being transported through the network in correspondence with the slots they qualify, second means (30-R, 32-R) responsive to the received qualifying bits and to the received bits for reconstructing therefrom, boundary circuit user bit streams comprising the user data bits when the qualifying bits are found equal to the first value and to idle bit configurations when the qualifying bit is found equal to the second value.

Claim 3

Mechanism according to claim 1, to be used in a network wherein the nodes are connected through links (L1, L2, L3) and comprise link adapting means (16, 17) which control the generation and reception of the frames, characterized in that: circuit boundary adapting means (16, 17) are attached to the link adapting means which are connected to boundary circuit users, each circuit boundary adapting means comprising slot table means (80, 92) having a plurality of positions equal to the maximum number of circuit slots in the frames, each position storing the correspondence between a circuit slot number in the frames to be sent and received from the link and a boundary circuit user if any, means (156, 228) for scanning the slot table means and reading a position during each slot period, decoding means (81,94) responsive to the information read from the slot table means for generating circuit user selection signals for the slots which are assigned to boundary circuit users, first gating means (96,100) responsive to the circuit user selection signals for sending to the link adapting means, the user data and the qualifying bits from the first means, to send them on the link during the assigned slots, second gating means (83,84) for sending to the second means, the user data and the corresponding qualifying bits received from the link adapting means during the slots assigned to boundary circuit users connected to the boundary node.

Claim 4

Mechanism according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that: the circuit user slot comprise n bits, with (n-1) bits devoted to the transport of user data bits and one bit transporting the bit (Caq) qualifying the slot.

Claim 5

Mechanism according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that: the circuit user slot comprise n bits devoted to the transport of user data bits and the corresponding qualifying bits are grouped in the frame.

Claim 6

Mechanism according to claim 1 or 2 characterized in that: the circuit user slot comprise n bits devoted to the transport of data bits and only one bit in a frame is devoted to the transportation of one qualifying bit, said bit in each frame being relative to a given slot number.

Claim 7

Mechanism according to claim 3 wherein the node comprise packet switched bit handling facilities and each link adapting means comprise transmitting means (figure 10), receiving means (figure 11), and storing means (126,206) storing an indication of the circuit or packet content of the slots of the frames to be sent to and received from the link, on the call basis, said storing means being scanned to provide circuit enable signals and packet enable signals during circuit and packet parts of the frame to be sent to and received from the link, the mechanism being characterized in that: the storing means store a boundary user indication (zeroes) in correspondence to the slot numbers assigned to the boundary node users, the transmitting means receive from the first gating means, the circuit user data bits and the associated qualifying bit, during the slots assigned to boundary users, if any and the circuit switched bits from other link adapting means, if any and packet switched bits from the packet switched bit handling facilities and comprise gating means (157, 354, 360, 356, 358, 362) which are responsive to the boundary user indication read from the storing means, to the boundary user qualifying bits and to the circuit and packet enable signals, for gating to the link the circuit and packet bits for building the frames, the receiving means receive the frames from the link and comprise gating means (fig 11-B, 478, 480 472, 470) which are responsive to the circuit and packet enable signals, to the value of the received qualifying bit, and to the circuit user indication to provide the received bits to the boundary circuit users, or to the packet handling facilities or to propagate the circuit slots to another link adapting means in the network.