Abstract: A home network architecture has an internal digital network interconnecting devices in the home. Entertainment services are introduced into the network through network interface units that are coupled to an external network and to the internal network. The network interface units perform the necessary interfacing between the external and internal networks, and make the entertainment services available to all terminals connected to the internal network. A plurality of set-top electronics that do not have network interface units connect to the internal network and prepare the information in the digital data stream for display, by a television, for example.

Abstract: A method and apparatus are disclosed for selectively accessing and independently sizing connection identification tables within a network switch. Upon receipt of a data unit, such as an asynchronous transfer mode cell at an input port of an Input Output Module, a plurality of selection bits are inserted into the cell header which are used to select one of a plurality of connection identifiers. The VPI/VCI addresses are mapped into a connection identifier and the connection identifier is also inserted within the respective cell header. The connection identifier may comprise an unicast connection identifier, a multicast connection identifier, or a redundant unicast identifier. The unicast, multicast and redundant identifiers are either stored in separate tables at call setup and the tables are independently selectable via use of the selection bits stored within the cell header.

Abstract: A method for determining a talk/listen state using voice detection includes receiving an audio sample and detecting whether the audio sample includes voiced sound. The audio sample represents sound measured during a sample time interval. The method further includes deriving an audio level from the audio sample and comparing the audio level to a threshold level. The audio level represents an average power level of the audio sample. The method further includes determining the talk/listen state depending on a relation of the audio level to the threshold level and depending on whether the audio sample includes voiced sound.

Abstract: A merged voice and data communications system, comprises a TDM-based broadband backbone carrying packet data, a plurality of LAN segments interconnected via said broadband backbone, a plurality of telephone subsystems, each comprising a plurality of telephone circuits connected to a subsystem multiplexer, and a central telephone controller. Circuits are established to carry telephone traffic over said broadband backbone between the central controller and several subsystem multiplexers independently of the packet data. Telephone calls can be routed over the broadband backbone to any of the telephone circuits without interfering with the packet data and without requiring separate physical links.

Abstract: The object of the present invention is to provide a time division multiple access radio data communication method wherein a radio time slot can be utilized effectively. In order to carry out data communication between data terminal equipment 1a connected to base station equipment 1 and a plurality of predetermined data terminal equipment 10a, 11a, 12a connected to those out station equipment 10, 11, 12 which face base station equipment 1, common radio time slot TS0 is allocated fixedly, and the plurality of predetermined data terminal equipment 10a, 11a, 12a send out request to send signals a0, a1, a2 at timings which do not overlap with each other.

Abstract: A packet radio system encapsulates data packets of external data networks by a point-to-point protocol PPP (FIGS. 4A, 4B), and passes them through one or more sub-networks to a point which supports the protocol of the encapsulated data packet. In addition, a special radio link protocol of the packet radio network is required on the radio interface between a mobile data terminal equipment and a support node. PPP packets are encapsulated in data packets of said radio link protocol. The disadvantage of the arrangement is that the data packets of both the PPP protocol and the radio link protocol contain protocol-specific fields, which reduces the transmission capacity of user information. Therefore, a PPP packet is compressed (FIG. 4C) before the encapsulation (FIG. 4D) by removing therefrom the unnecessary control fields. After having been transferred over the radio interface, the PPP packet is decompresssed into its original format (FIGS. 4F, 4G).

Abstract: Fading on a data link prevents a mobile station from acknowledging a received base station poll message. Responsive thereto, the data link is transitioned to an unacknowledged mode of operation. A group of frames of a data communication are then transmitted to the mobile station with no base station expectation of receiving a mobile station acknowledgment. Following group frame transmission, the data link is transitioned back to acknowledged mode of operation. To insure delivery of the data communication, the sent frames a queued (stored) by the base station until such time as a delivery confirmation with respect to the group of frames can be obtained.

Abstract: In a communication system, a method comprises the steps of receiving (401) at least one information bundle intended for subsequent outbound transmission, receiving (403) at least one reservation request that corresponds to at least one information bundle intended for subsequent inbound transmission, and selecting (407) from amongst the at least one information bundle and the at least one reservation request to provide at least one selected information bundle to be transmitted. At least a part of a communication resource is assigned (409) to support transmission of the at least one selected information bundle.

Abstract: During data transmission to a remote unit (113) utilizing a supplemental, high-speed data channel (105), data transmission stops due to all data being communicated to the remote unit (113) or because of an interruption in transmission. In the situation where all data has been transmitted to the remote unit (113) the remote unit (113) will drop the supplemental channel (105) prior to acknowledging reception of the last frames transmitted, and acknowledgment will take place utilizing the low-speed fundamental channel (103). In the situation where an interruption occurs, data transmission will continue utilizing a fundamental channel (103) if less than a predetermined amount of data remains to be transmitted.

Abstract: A method is provided for establishing a communication session over a path supported at least in part by a telephony network and an ATM network. The telephony network includes ingress and egress telephony switches and the ATM network includes ingress and egress ATM switches. A first call setup request is received at the ingress telephony switch from an originating node and the ingress telephony switch selects a first available trunk from the ingress telephony switch to the ingress ATM switch. A communications path is established over the available trunk to the ingress telephony switch. A second call setup request is transmitted from the ingress telephony switch to the egress telephony switch and the egress telephony switch selects a second available trunk from the egress telephony switch to the egress ATM switch.

Abstract: For enhanced efficiency in setting up routes, and for enhanced throughput in an ATM network, invocation of objects can be parallelized. Also, throughput of a connection manager can be increased, and the latency of call set-up decreased by caching of network states such as recently used routes, output or input VCI/VPIs, bandwidth and buffer resources and existing connection states. And systems throughput can be increased by aggregating multiple request messages into a single invocation instead of making multiple invocations.

Abstract: First and second control processor cards are employed in conjunction with first and second switch fabric cards to interconnect Input/Output cards in a telecommunications switch. The control processor cards provide a portion of the functionality previously associated with switch fabric cards, such as exertion of control over allocation of bandwidth within the switch. The control processor cards also provide new functionality. In particular, each control processor card can configure both switch fabric cards. Redundant control processor cards and redundant switch fabric cards are employed to provide a switch that is less susceptible to failure than switches with only redundant switch fabric cards. Hence, failure of a control processor card and a switch fabric card can be sustained without resulting in switch failure. Timing control functions may also be provided by a separate timing module card.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for communicating with a high-altitude communication platform (110) which combines multiple signals from multiple sources into one signal which is sent to a ground device (120). The ground device (120) can send a combined signal to the platform (110) which the platform (110) can then separate and send to multiple destinations. The ground device (120) also can provide spectral reuse by orienting directional antennas (360-362) toward the communication platform (110) and one or more spatially diverse other wireless devices.

Abstract: The invention provides for a E-Mux and a method for encapsulating/segmenting ATM cells into/from an Ethernet frame at the boundary between an ATM and an Ethernet network. An Ethernet end-station on the E-Mux is addressed using multiple MAC level identifiers, which are dynamically assigned according to the ATM virtual circuits which terminate on that end station, and have only transitory significance on the Ethernet. A unique ATM OUI identifies the frames carrying ATM-traffic.

Abstract: This device for transferring information between two digital signals includes means (26, 44; 62, 86) of selecting characteristics of a digital input signal, means (28, 46; 78, 94) of direct transmission to a digital output signal and means (28, 46; 80; 114) for the positioning within the latter, of elements of the input signal conveying first characteristics authorized, by the means of selection, to be transferred directly to the output signal, means (30, 32, 48, 50; 72, 74, 90, 92, 98) of measuring second characteristics of the input signal which are identified by the selection means, and means (78, 80, 102, 110) of modifying the output signal on the basis of the measurement values of the second characteristics so that the said second characteristics of the output signal and the input signal are identical.

Abstract: A mechanism conveys information pertaining to transmission priority (TP) levels of inbound packets transmitted over a heterogeneous network from a switching node to a hybrid node of the network. The mechanism comprises a packet-recognizing filter having a format that is generated by the hybrid node and dynamically transmitted to the switching node over a predefined communication channel of the network. The filter enables the switching node to classify the inbound packets and assign them appropriate TP levels.

Abstract: An ATM line card is provided wherein a microprocessor bus is selectively coupled to a memory bus during maintenance time intervals. This allows direct transfer of connection memory data to the microprocessor system of the line card and thus to the RAM of the system. After the transfer is accomplished the busses are decoupled again so that further maintenance work of the connection memory and the transferred data can be done independently. If the access to the connection memory is due to a destructive read operation the corresponding memory locations in the connection memory are reset simultaneous to the transfer of the data which are read out from the DMA of the microprocessor system to the RAM. This results in a dramatic reduction of the time required for maintenance of the ATM system.

Abstract: An apparatus and method using the forward error correction setting to enable simultaneous use of multiple modulation systems on terrestrial distribution networks including cable television systems is described. The system includes a transcoder having a demultiplexer for demultiplexing a forward-error-correction decoded signal into a main data stream with a bit rate suitable for 64-QAM cable transmission and an auxiliary data stream with a bit rate approximately half that of the main data stream. Two of such auxiliary data streams can be combined to generate an output data stream with a bit rate suitable for 64-QAM cable transmission. The system also includes a satellite transmitter which can adjust its convolution coding rate to either 1/2 or 3/4 for 64-QAM and 256-QAM cable channels respectively.

Abstract: Transmitting changes to its routing information by a switch node to other switch nodes that are directly connected to the switch node. No information is transmitted if there has been no change in the routing information. In addition, the switch nodes each transmit their routing information at different times as determined by the identification number of the switch node. The exchange of routing information is controlled by a low level software layer.

Abstract: A system for remotely accessing computer networks is provided in which a central hub is connected to a computer network. The central hub may then be connected to a plurality of remote sites through an earth-orbiting satellite. Users at multiple remote sites may be connected to the central hub simultaneously through frequency management techniques.