Tandem office time division switching system

Claim 2

In a tandem switching office, a plurality of digital incoming trunks and a plurality of digital outgoing trunks, a plurality of analog incoming trunks and a plurality of analog outgoing trunks, time division switchiNg means for interconnecting individual channels of said digital incoming and outgoing trunks, store means including channel units for each channel of said digital incoming trunks, means for connecting said channel units to said time division switching means, means for storing digital information from each channel of a digital incoming trunk in its respective store means channel unit, space division switching means for interconnecting said analog incoming and outgoing trunks, and means for connecting said analog incoming trunks through said space and time division switching means to channels of said digital outgoing trunks comprising means for converting analog information on said analog incoming trunks to the digital form encountered on said digital incoming trunks and means for connecting said information converting means between said space division switching means and available ones of said store means channel units.

Claim 3

In a tandem switching office, the combination of claim 1 further comprising means for deriving first timing information from said digital incoming channels for controlling the storing of information in said store means channel units and independent timing means in the tandem switching office for deriving second timing information for controlling the transfer of said digital information through said time division switching means to said digital outgoing trunk channels.

Claim 4

In a tandem switching office, the combination of claim 1 wherein said information converting means includes means comprising a plurality of code conversion channels and wherein said means for connecting said information converting means comprises means for connecting one of said code conversion channels to a selected one of said store means channel units in place of a digital incoming trunk channel.

Claim 5

In a tandem switching office, the combination of claim 1 further comprising second information converting means connected in place of an outgoing digital trunk on said time division switching means and in place of an incoming analog trunk on said space division switching means.

Claim 6

A tandem office comprising a time division system for switching digital signals contained in repetitive time channels multiplexed in a serial pulse train on an incoming trunk to outgoing trunks, said system comprising means for generating pulses corresponding to the clock rate of the office originating the incoming pulse train, means controlled by said generating means for defining a plurality of channel and digit intervals in repetitive frames, a store containing a plurality of channel units, means operative in response to outputs from said generating means and from said defining means for storing the content of each channel in a frame of the incoming pulse train in a distinct one of said channel units, a tandem office clock, means enabled by pulses from said clock for extracting said words from said storing means in a revised sequence to form an outgoing pulse train, means for detecting framing signals in the incoming pulse train, means connected to said framing signal detecting means for recording a change in the type of framing signal provided by the incoming pulse train, means operative in response to an output from said recording means for retrieving a supervisory indication from the incoming pulse train and means for inserting said supervisory indication in said outgoing pulse train.

Claim 7

A tandem office comprising a time division system for switching digital signals contained in repetitive time channels multiplexed in a serial pulse train on an incoming trunk to outgoing trunks, said system comprising means for generating pulses corresponding to the clock rate of the office originating the incoming pulse train, means controlled by said generating means for defining a plurality of channel and digit intervals in repetitive frames, a store containing a plurality of channel units, means operative in response to outputs from said generating means and from said defining means for storing the content of each channel in a frame of the incoming pulse train in a distinct one of said channel units, a tandem office clock, means enabled by pulses from said clock for extracting said words from said storing means in a revised sequence to form an outgoing pulse train, means for detecting framing signals in the incoming pulse train, means connected to said framing signal detecting means for recording a change in the type of framing signal provided by the incoming pulse train, means operative in response to an output from said recording means for retrieving a supervisory indication from the incoming pulse train and means for inserting said supervisory indication in said outgoing pulse train.

Claim 10

A system in accordance with claim 6 wherein said control means comprises a dump memory containing the status of each channel during the previous frame on said outgoing trunk and means connected between said dump memory and said channel storage units for enabling the output of said channel storage units in accordance with the storage sequence in said dump memory.

Claim 11

A system in accordance with claim 7 and further comprising means for detecting requests for service including a trunk scan unit for comparing service request information received on said incoming trunk with the status of the corresponding channel produced by said dump memory and received through said channel storage units and means operative in response to receipt of the output of said trunk scan unit for registering the address of said channel requesting service.

Claim 12

A system in accordance with claim 8 wherein said detecting means further comprises a verify service request circuit for comparing the address of said service requesting channel stored in said channel address registering means with each output of said first generating means during a plurality of consecutive frames and means for registering each occurrence of the service request concurrent with receipt of an output from said verify service request circuit.

Claim 13

A system in accordance with claim 9 further comprising a signal processor and wherein said detecting means further comprises means for scanning said service request registering means to determine channels indicating a verified request to originate service, trunk address registering means and means responsive to receipt of a verified service request from said service request registering means for enabling the transmission from said channel and trunk address registering means of the corresponding channel and trunk addresses to said signal processor.

Claim 14

A system in accordance with claim 10 wherein said detecting means further comprises an automatic on-hook circuit responsive to a verified request to discontinue service from said service request registering means for comparing the output of said channel address registering means with each output of said dump memory and means responsive to an output of said automatic on-hook circuit for removing the compared channel address from said dump memory and from each of said registering means.

Claim 15

A system in accordance with claim 6 further comprising space division switching means for switching analog signals on incoming analog trunks to outgoing analog trunks and means for switching incoming analog signals to outgoing digital trunks including means for converting analog signals to the digital form encountered on the digital trunks and means for connecting said converting means between said space division switching means and available ones of said channel storage units.

Claim 16

A system in accordance with claim 12 further comprising means for switching incoming digital signals to outgoing analog trunks including means for converting digital signals to the analog form encountered on the analog trunks and means for connecting said last-mentioned converting means in place of an outgoing digital trunk and in place of an incoming analog trunk.