Abstract: Communicative services are transported over a TDMA or TDM access network by packetising the services into minicells which minicells are transported within minislots created by subdivision of the TDM time slots. For low bit rate communicative services only, mini-slots are allocated periodically rather than in the blocks that are allocated to high bit rate services. The packetisation delay inherent within the transport layer can be significantly reduced for these low bit rate services.

Abstract: In order to support both signalling processing on a per channel basis and multiple adaptation protocols, an interface (10) is modularised principally by function. Incident channels (60-62, Cho—Chn) are applied to a routing device (16) that consults a connection map (64) to determine an appropriate path, via an interface (90), for signal processing of each channel, as shown in FIG. 2. Modularised processing platforms (70-74) each contain a number of signal processors (80-86), with each processing platform providing an additional level of indirection with respect to channel handling. In this latter respect, one of the signal processors (86) on each platform is assigned to distribute channel processing to appropriately configured other ones of the signal processors and such that signal processing functions may be distributed between the other ones (80-84) of the signal processors.

Abstract: A data structure, such as a telecommunications connection map, comprises at least one list of data elements which are stored in a predetermined sequence of locations of a memory device. The structure is updated by moving a portion of the list through the sequence of memory locations so as to insert a new element into, or delete or change an existing element at, a particular position in the structure while maintaining the order of the list. Elements of the structure are accessed in the sequence in which they are stored and the structure is updated during the accessing of the structure by moving elements through the sequence of memory locations. A particular application of this invention is in maintaining a connection map for a telecommunications switch, the map storing connection instructions defining into which ATM cell payload received narrowband call data is assembled.

Abstract: Random bit errors in a digital transmission system in which data is scrambled and subsequently descrambled are detected by parsing the descrambled data into words, determining a syndrome error word for each data word, and determining a parity error word for each data word. A data word is left uncorrected when its corresponding syndrome error and parity error words are both zero. Single bit error correction of a data word is effected when its corresponding syndrome error and parity error words are both non-zero. Double or multiple bit error correction of a data word is effected when its corresponding parity error word is zero and its corresponding syndrome error word is non-zero.