Abstract: A peripheral access module transports voice and data between the common control equipment and the peripheral equipment of a telephone switch. The peripheral access module determines the protocol for transporting the voice and data, and determines the type of medium to effect the transporting. The peripheral access module operatively connects to the peripheral equipment and adaptively reside on a card of the common control equipment.

Abstract: A modular digital telephone system and method featuring a universal telephony shelf adaptable for incremental expansion of legacy telephone switches and as a building block in the construction of new telephony switches. The shelf includes identification and connectors for shelf pairing, and is adapted to receive redundant power supplies, plural line cards, and either a peripheral shelf interface unit or a switch array card which provides both a local shelf interface and three interface units for connection to the peripheral interface units of other shelves. System wide fault displays are provided.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for a telephone system includes a telephony switch comprising a timing and switch array card for effecting all switching and timing functions of the switch, a plurality of telephony line cards operatively connected to the timing and switch array card, and at least one power supply operatively connected to both the timing and switch array card and the plurality of line cards wherein said timing and switching functions comprise tone and conference functions, line card slot and alarm board interface functions, PCM switching functions, signal scanning and signal packet transfer buffer support functions, host computer interface functions, and clock and synchronization functions.

Abstract: A modular digital telephone system and method featuring a universal telephony shelf adaptable for incremental expansion of legacy telephone switches and as a building block in the construction of new telephony switches. The shelf includes identification and connectors for shelf pairing, and is adapted to receive redundant power supplies, plural line cards, and either a peripheral shelf interface unit or a switch array card which provides both a local shelf interface and three interface units for connection to the peripheral interface units of other shelves. System wide fault displays are provided.

Abstract: In a telephone automatic call distribution system (ACD), incoming telephone calls are assigned to a queue. Additionally, announcements are peridically provided to the incoming callers usually notifying the caller the system is processing the call and the manner of such processing. The number of agents available to handle calls is controlled by a load factor expressed as a ratio of incoming calls in the queue to number of agents available. This load factor is used as a threshold level, which when exceeded, causes the system to add an additional agent or additional groups of agents, increasing the probability the calls longest in the queue will be answered. The oldest call or the call that was first in and not yet answered is passed along to the next available agent group added to the system.