Abstract: A time-division circuit switch which serves as a cross connect for time multiplexed signals including frames subdivided into slots serves to cross-connect input and output lines on a slot-by-slot basis. The circuit utilizes a self-routing packet switching network. An input interface attached to each input line converts incoming slots into fixed length packets which can be routed through the self-routing switching network in a synchronous manner. An output interface coupled to each output line reconverts the packets into slot/frame format. To prevent blocking, the self-routing packet switching network runs at a faster rate than the input and output lines of the switch.

Abstract: Circuits at a remote transmission site receive digitized voice and data samples from incoming channels. The voice samples are compressed. The samples are formatted into fixed-size data blocks with signaling and control information for transmission to a switching node. Additional bits of the voice samples are dynamically dropped, if necessary, to fit the data into the fixed-sized blocks. The signaling and control information allows receiving circuits at the switching node to determine the number of bits allocated to each sample. These receiving circuits form packets for individual channels by attaching switch routing packet headers to the individual channel data. Packet receiving circuits on the output side of the switch reformat the received packets into fixed-size nonpacket data blocks for transmission.