Abstract: A method and apparatus for transporting Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocol cells over an Internet Protocol backbone network is disclosed herein. ATM signaling cells are initially received at a source gateway interconnected to the IP backbone. The signaling message is converted to an H.323 message and transmitted to a controller which provides ATM to IP address translation. The corresponding IP address is received at the source gateway and ATM bearer cells of the same call as the original ATM signaling cell are encapsulated with IP headers which include the IP address to form an IP packet which keeps the ATM cells intact within the packet. The IP packet is transferred onto the IP backbone network and routed to the appropriate destination gateway where the IP packets are decapsulated to retrieve the original ATM bearer cell.

Abstract: A system for interconnecting ATM systems over an ATM facility using switch virtual connections, without having to reprogram existing addresses of the ATM systems when using a switching ATM service network. The system includes two or more ATM systems having an ATM system addressing scheme and an intermediate switching ATM network having an intermediate switching ATM network addressing scheme, which is independent of and unknown to the ATM systems. Calls are transmitted between hosts of different ATM systems via border node switches. The hosts are unaware of the intermediate switching ATM network addressing scheme and thus only identify the ATM system address of the called party host in a called party address information element. The border nodes serve as an interface between the two addressing schemes.

Abstract: The present invention relates to an optical switching device for WDM systems based on multi-frequency lasers and optical couplers. A router/switch mapping of IP (or other protocols) subnets or addresses to an optical channel instead of a physical interface. Another embodiment of the invention implements the mapping directly at the source where the data transmission originates. The invention allows integration of WDM in the routers and switches, and ultimately in the information source. As a result, unnecessary opto-electrical conversion steps and physical interfaces are eliminated.

Abstract: ATM-coupled multicast data are transmitted to a multiplicity of ATM users over an IP backbone by having a controller in the IP backbone translate a pre-stored Multicast Initiating Address into a multiplicity of pre-stored pairs of addresses, each pair composed of a user's ATM destination address and the IP address of the (user) gateway serving the user's ATM destination, then establishing connections between the multicast source ATM address and each of the user's ATM addresses, having IP routers attach the user gateways to the multicast group, and encapsulating the multicast data ATM cells in IP packets for routing to the user gateways, and decapsulating the multicast data ATM cells for routing to the user ATM addresses.