Concurrent switching of synchronous and asynchronous traffic

Abstract

A network element can be configured for connection to any portion of a communication network: access, transport and core. Moreover, a single network element can be configured to couple subscriber equipment directly to the core portion of the network, thereby permitting the subscriber to bypass the transport portion of the network. Specifically, such a network element can be configured to include a line unit that supports subscriber equipment (also called a “subscriber line unit”), and also to include a line unit to support a link to the core of the communication network (also called a “core line unit”). The subscriber line unit and core line unit are both installed in a single chassis, and each unit can be installed in any of a number of slots in the chassis. Moreover, when configured with appropriate line units, such a network element may support traditional circuit-switched telephony services while simultaneously delivering packet-based voice or data services. The network element provides multi-class service over the entire range of the network because it employs a common switch fabric for handling both synchronous and asynchronous traffic over a common bus.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO ATTACHMENTS A-I

[0010] The following attachments which describe an illustrative embodiment of the present invention are a part of the present disclosure and are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

[0011] Attachment A entitled “Hardware Architectural Specification;”

[0012] Attachment B entitled “GRX ASIC Functional Specification;”

[0013] Attachment C entitled “GRX ASIC Packet Crosspoint Module Specification;”

[0014] Attachment D entitled “GRX ASIC Synchronous Crosspoint Module Specification;”

[0015] Attachment E entitled “GigaPoint Media Access Controller (GP MAC) Module Specification;”

[0016] Attachment F entitled “GigaPoint Bus Hardware Architectural Specification;”

[0017] Attachment G entitled “GigaPoint Access Processor (GAP) ASIC Functional Specification;”

[0018] Attachment H entitled “GAP ASIC GigaPoint Adaptation (GA) Module Specification.”

[0019] Attachment I entitled “GAP Virtual Output Queue Controller (VOQC) ASIC Module SpecificationGAP ASIC GigaPoint Adaptation (GA) Module Specification.”

[0020] Attachments A-I contain detailed specifications for various portions of the network element.

[0021] A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material that is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appear in the U.S. patent and Trademark Office patent files or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND

[0022] Traditionally, central office switches that process telephone calls between subscribers typically use switches called Class 5 switches, such as the 5ESS available from Lucent. A telephone instrument may be directly connected to such a Class 5 switch as illustrated in FIG. 1 if the telephone instrument is located within 18 kilofoot radius. Beyond the 18 kilofoot radius, support for such telephone instruments that use a copper twisted pair may be provided through a digital loop carrier (DLC) which has two portions: a central office terminal and a remote terminal. The central office terminal is normally located within the central office and communicates with the remote terminal using a digital signal over metallic (such as copper) or optical link (also called “digital line”). The central office terminal of the digital loop carrier is coupled to the Class 5 switch in the central office and the coupling may conform to an aggregation interface, such as GR303 (a standard defined by Telcordia). The remote terminal in turn is connected to a number of telephone instruments. Depending on the hardware installed within the remote terminal, such a remote terminal may also provide a high-speed trunk, such as T1 that may be needed by a business and/or be coupled via modems to personal computers to support data traffic.

[0023] The DLC remote terminal may be implemented by a digital multiplexer that combines a number of subscriber channels into a single high speed digital signal, and the DLC central office terminal implemented by a de-multiplexer. Because a digital line cannot carry signals as far as a corresponding analog line, the digital line often requires a number of digital repeaters to boost signal level. A typical digital line of a DLC carries from 24 to 3000 POTS circuits. Note that a DLC central office terminal may be eliminated, e.g. as in case of an Integrated Digital Loop Carrier System, wherein the digital line is directly connected to the Class 5 switch.

[0024] All of above-described equipment up to the Class 5 switch in the central office is traditionally referred to as forming the “access” portion of a public switched telephone network (PSTN). The Class 5 switch may be associated with a portion of a telephone number, e.g. the portion 252 in a telephone number 408-252-1735. All telephones that are serviced by a single Class 5 switch are normally assigned a telephone number that includes a preset prefix, e.g. 252. The Class 5 switch typically forms connections between telephones within its own service area, each of which starts with the preset prefix, e.g. 252. When a telephone instrument within its service area places a call to a number different from the numbers starting with the preset prefix, the Class 5 switch connects the telephone instrument to another switch which may be of a different class, such as a Class IV switch, commonly referred to as a hub switch.

[0025] The hub switch is typically coupled to a number of Class 5 switches through a ring of add/drop multiplexers (ADMs). For example, each central office may have a Class 5 switch co-located with and coupled to an add/drop multiplexer, and in addition the hub switch is also co-located with and coupled to an add/drop multiplexer. All of the add/drop multiplexers are connected to one another in a ring topology. Such a ring topology typically contains two optical fiber connections between each pair of add/drop multiplexers, wherein one of the connections is redundant, and used primarily in case of failure. The just-described ring of add/drop multiplexers that connects a number of central office switches to a hub switch is typically referred to as forming the “interoffice” or “transport” portion of the public telephone network. The hub switch is typically connected to a number of other hub switches by another portion of the network commonly referred to as “core”.

[0026] To support data traffic, for example, to provide Internet access to a business, central offices typically contain additional equipment called a DSLAM which provides a digital subscriber line (DSL) connection to the business. The DSLAM may only service businesses that are within 18 kilofeet, e.g. because of the limitations of a copper twisted pair connection. Such DSLAMs are typically connected inside the central office to an add/drop multiplexer so that data traffic can be routed to an Internet Service Provider (ISP). For businesses located outside of 18 kilofeet radius of a central office, a remote terminal of a digital loop carrier can be used to provide an IDSL service, which is based on the use of a ISDN link to the central office, via the central office terminal of the DLC.

[0027] The development of DSLAM, IDC and IDSL applications was the result of the need for access to the Class 5 switch by remote businesses and subscribers, particularly due to development remote from the Class 5 switches. Recently, larger businesses have bypassed this copper remote access to the transport layer of networks using large fiber optic trunks with large bandwidth capabilities. This new access has been called Metro Access. Smaller businesses would also benefit from this access, but so far most applications are too expensive to provide this direct access to small enterprise and subscribers. Thus, it would be highly desirable for a network access solution that provides the bandwidth of fiber access in the place of the typical copper remote access functions, especially that is cost-competitive with the legacy technology. It would also be highly desirable if that same solution could be used to perform cost-effectively at the remote access level, but through simple substitution of line card units to accommodate different types of traffic, could be deployed to interface with the core itself.

SUMMARY

[0028] In accordance with the invention, a network element can be configured for connection to any portion of a communication network: access, transport and core. Moreover, a single network element can be configured to couple subscriber equipment directly to the core portion of the network, thereby to bypass the transport portion of the network. Specifically, such a network element can be configured to include a line unit that supports subscriber equipment (also called “subscriber line unit”), and also to include a line unit to support a link to core of the communication network (also called “core line unit”). The subscriber line unit and core line unit is both installed in a single chassis, and each unit can be installed in any of a number of slots of the chassis. Moreover, when configured with appropriate line units, such a network element may support traditional circuit-switched telephony services, such as DSLAM, DLC and ADM while simultaneously delivering packet-based voice or data services.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0029] A network element 11 (FIG. 2) in accordance with the invention may be directly coupled to any kind of subscriber equipment (such as a telephone instrument 12, or a modem in a personal computer 13), when equipped with appropriate line units that support the subscriber equipment. Moreover, such a network element 14 (FIG. 3) may also be coupled (either through a central office terminal of a DLC, or through another network element, or even directly) to a switch of any class (such as a central office switch 15 or a hub switch 16), when equipped with an appropriate line unit. In addition, network element 14 may also be coupled directly to a router 17 (FIG. 3), again when equipped with an appropriate line unit. The network element 14 may be further coupled to other network elements 18, 19 and 20 in a ring topology to provide protection for voice traffic, e.g. support UPSR or BLSR ring functions defined by the SONET standard. Network element 14 may also be configured to protect data traffic as described in U.S. patent application [Attorney Docket No. M-8458] entitled “Optical Network Restoration” by Madan Manoharan et al.

[0030] Also, network elements of the type described herein, when equipped with the appropriate line units, can be used in the transport portion of the public telephone network and also in the core portion. For example, the network element as described herein may be coupled by an interexchange carrier to network trunk facilities to provide interoffice call delivery. When used in the core portion, such a network element may be provided with line units that are coupled to a long distance network, and may support dense wave division multiplexing (DVWDM). Therefore, depending on the requirement, a single network element 30 (FIG. 5) of the type described herein may be equipped with a line unit 31 (which may also be called “subscriber line unit”) containing circuitry to support subscriber equipment, such as plain old telephone service (POTS) on copper twisted pair, and another line unit 32 (which may also be called “core line unit”) containing circuitry to support the core portion of a communication network, e.g. at OC-48 or OC-192 rates.

[0031] The same network element 30 may also contain another line unit 33 (which may also be called “central office line unit”) containing circuitry to support an aggregation interface (such as GR303 or TR008) to a central office switch (such as the 5ESS available from Lucent), e.g. at DS1 rate. The same network element 30 may also contain yet another line unit 34 (which may also be called “router line unit”) containing circuitry to support a data interface (such as 1 Gigabit Ethernet or 10 Gigabit Ethernet).

[0032] Although just four different kinds of line units 31-34 have been discussed above, any number of different kinds of line units may be used in a network element as described herein. For example, one implementation supports the following analog, digital, ethernet, and optical line units: POTS (24 ports), DSL (24 ports), combination of POTS and DSL, DS1 (12 ports), DS3 (8 ports), 10BaseT, 100BaseT, 1Gigabit Ethernet, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, ESCON (Enterprise Systems Connection), FICON (Fiber Connector), OC3 (4 ports), OC12 (2 ports), OC48 (single port), Fiber to Business (12° C. 1 ports coming in and one OC12 port going out). This implementation also supports a number of different kinds of these line units, e.g. POTS card may provide just basic telephone service, or provide universal voice grade service, or coin service, or transmission only service (2 wire or 4 wire), or private line automatic ring-down service (PLAR), foreign exchange service. Furthermore, the network element may be configured with one or more cards that interface with a Class 5 switch or with a router: e.g. DS1 card with GR 303 aggregation, or PLAR, or transmission only, or OC3 (packet), or OC12 (packet), or OC48 (packet).

[0033] Each line unit 31-34 described above is coupled by one or more buses 41-44 (FIG. 5) to the switch unit 35, physically located in a high-speed area of a backplane of chassis 39. Depending on the embodiment, the one or more buses 41-44 may be of any kind, synchronous or asynchronous, and may be either parallel or serial. Such buses operated at 3.1 Gbps. Information is transmitted over such buses of the backplane in discrete units called “frames,” and a number of frames are grouped into a superframe, e.g. in a manner similar to SONET. The information on such buses may be generated by circuitry (labeled GAP in FIG. 5), in each line unit (labeled LU in FIG. 5), in a format described in, U.S. patent application [Attorney Docket No. M-8457] entitled “BACKPLANE BUS” by Jason Dove and Brian Semple. In one example, such frames are grouped into a 6 millisecond superframe. The physical layer for the backplane buses is described in IEEE 802.3 z. Such buses may be coupled via a connector, e.g. a 5-row by 10 VHDM connector in each LU slot of chassis 39, and and an 8-row by 60 VHDM connector in the RAP slots.

[0034] In addition to containing line units (which can be of different kinds or all of the same kind), the above-described network element 30 also contains a cross-connect to transfer traffic among various line units. For example, traffic to and from subscriber equipment (also called “subscriber traffic”), such as a telephone instrument or a private branch exchange (PBX), that is carried by a subscriber line unit 31 is switched by such a cross-connect to core line unit 32. Therefore, core line unit 32 carries the subscriber traffic sequentially, thereby to pass the subscriber traffic to and from the core of the communication network, e.g. to support a long distance telephone call. The transfer of traffic between line units and the cross-connect changes with time, so that at a different moment in time, traffic to/from subscriber line unit 31 may be switched by such a cross-connect to/from router line unit 34, e.g. if the traffic originates from and has as its destination a modem (which modem may be coupled to a different port of line unit 32 from the port to which the above-described telephone instrument is coupled).

[0035] A network element of the type described above implements in its line units a number of functions that were performed by a number of discrete products in the prior art. Therefore, a network element of the type described herein eliminates the need for a communication service provider to deploy such discrete products. Specifically, one embodiment of the network element eliminates the need for digital loop carriers (DLCs), DSLAMs, add/drop multiplexers (of both types: access and transport). Instead, a communication service provider can simply use a single chassis of the network element, and install whichever subscriber line unit is needed to support the type of services required by its customers. If necessary, such a single chassis may also be configured to contain a core line unit to connect to the core network. Also, if necessary, the number of chassis in a single network element may be incrementally increased (e.g. up to a total of 5 chassis which fit in a single cabinet). Therefore, a network element of the type described herein can be used to provide services at the network edge, e.g. to small businesses and at the same time to connect Class 5 switches to long-distance trunk facilities, and/or interexchange transport facilities. Therefore, a network element of the type described herein may be used in any portion of the entire communication network, to provide any service.

[0036] In one embodiment, each of line units 31-34 (FIG. 5) are installed in a chassis 39 in which is also installed a unit 35 (which may also be called “switch unit”) that contains the above-described cross-connect. Each of units 31-35 may be implemented in a modular manner, e.g. as cards that can be inserted into and removed from chassis 39. There may be one or more additional cards that act as standby in case of a failure of a portion of the circuitry in such cards. However, in other implementations, it is not necessary for the units to be modular, or to be implemented in cards. For example, switch unit 35 may be built into a chassis in an alternative implementation. In one specific implementation, switch unit 35 and a line unit are implemented in a single card, such as a common control card discussed in Attachment A in reference to RAP. The line unit that is installed on the RAP card may contain circuitry that supports any traffic rate, such as OC3, OC12 and OC48.

[0037] In one implementation, chassis 39 is 19 inches wide and contains 23 slots, whereas in another implementation chassis 39 is 23 inches wide, and provides 29 slots. Width W (FIG. 5) is selected so as to allow chassis 39 to be installed in a rack commonly found in a central office. Regardless of the number of slots present, in one embodiment one slot in the center is reserved for a card that contains an interface unit (to interface with humans), and two slots on either side of the center slot are resered for two copies of the above-described common control card, wherein one copy is used as a standby for the other copy. The usage of slots in one embodiment is described in the following table:

SLOT 1 through SLOT 10  Line Units (incl. transport)
SLOT 11                 Common Control (RAP)
SLOT 12                 Interface Unit (AMP)
SLOT 13                 Common Control (RAP)
SLOT 14 through SLOT 23 Line Units (incl. Transport)

[0038] Switching of the two kinds of traffic (voice and data) as described above, by the cross-connect in switch unit 35 is performed in two separate circuits, namely a synchronous cross-connect, and an asynchronous cross-connect that are respectively described in the U.S. patent applications, Attorney Docket No. M-9432 US, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Efficient Switching of Multiple Classes of Synchronous Data Traffic” by Ying Zhang and Attorney Docket No. M-9431 US, entitled “Gigapoint Receive And Transmit Packet Crosspoint” by James Jones, both of which were incorporated by reference above. The synchronous cross-connect, and the asynchronous cross-connect operate simultaneously, i.e. one cross-connect switches traffic to/from one set of input-output ports while at the same time the other cross-connect switches traffic to/from another set of input-output ports. The just-described input-output ports are of the cross-connect as a whole, and their division into the two sets changes with time, as described briefly herein and in detail in Attachments A-I.

[0039] A network element of the type described above may be used to groom a broad range of traffic classes, including ATM, Frame Relay, IP, STS and TDM traffic. In one embodiment, any combination of the foregoing traffic types can be switched between a core network and/or PSTN and business users and/or residential users. A communication network of this embodiment includes two network elements that are hereinafter referred to as a Host Node (HN) that typically resides at a central office (CO) and a Flex Node (FN) that resides at a remote terminal to which individual users have access. Although in this particular embodiment (as described in detail next) the network elements are used as Host Nodes and Flex Nodes in other embodiments such network elements may be used as other components of a communication network, such as add-drop multiplexers.

[0040] Host Node 110 and Flex Node 112 (see FIG. 6) of this embodiment contain many of the same components, e.g. each node has at least a first shelf 114a, 116a, respectively. Shelves 114a, 116a of have a number of slots for receiving and coupling circuit boards (118, 120 respectively) to a common back-plane (not shown) by which the circuit boards of each shelf communicate with one another. Shelf 114a of HN 10 has two slots for receiving an active and a redundant Routing and Arbitration Processor board (RAP(A) 124a and RAP(B) 124b respectively). Shelf 116a of FN 112 has two slots for receiving an active and redundant Routing and Arbitration Processor board (RAP(A) 122a and RAP(B) 122b respectively). The RAP (for both nodes 110, 112) performs the primary functions providing an interface for up to 32 full-duplex data ports over which data traffic is received or transmitted, routing the data traffic between the ports, and to condition the data traffic for routing. Typically, only one of the RAP boards is active, while the other remains idle unless pressed into action as a result of a failure of the first RAP board. Each shelf 114a and 116a of nodes HN 110 and FN 112 also has one slot for an administration and maintenance processor board (AMP) 115. The AMP provides test access, alarm status, application hosting, and the AMP 115 provides an Ethernet connection, for Network Element Management.

[0041] Shelves 114a and 116a of nodes 110, 112 also have at least twenty slots to receive circuit boards that form line units 118, 120 respectively. As noted above, such line units may be implemented as circuit boards that are specifically designed to transmit and receive particular forms of traffic. For example, some line units have ports and circuitry to interface with POTS terminals. The same line units may have other ports designed to interface with DS-1, DS-3, DSL, STS or optical standards such as OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 for example. Moreover, all ports of certain line units may be of the same kind, e.g. a single line unit may have only POTS ports.

[0042] All of the line units 118, 120 of a given shelf 114a, 116a provide communication between some number of ports to the outside world, and one or more backplane buses of the type described above. In one implementation, the backplane buses are full duplex serial buses (in one specific example illustrated in the Attachments A-Z such buses are called Gigapoint buses) coupled to the active RAP(A) and inactive RAP(B) of the shelf through the backplane (not shown). In one embodiment, each slot of a given shelf has four such serial buses by which each line unit plugged therein is coupled to the RAP(A) of that shelf and four such serial buses by which the line unit plugged therein is coupled to the RAP(B) of that shelf.

[0043] In a typical embodiment of the system of FIG. 6, a circuit board slot of shelf 1114aof HN 110 is used for a two port OC-12 circuit board 118(A), 118(B) that provides dual SONET OC-12 interfaces 113a, 113b when RAP(A) 124a is active, and standby interfaces 113c, 113d if RAP(B) becomes active in the event RAP(A) 124a fails. The SONET interfaces 113a-d can be used to provide connectivity to an Edge/Core Network 111. The line unit 118(A)(B) is coupled through the backplane to RAP(A) 124a through two active serial buses (and to RAP(B) 124b as well through one inactive bus for back-up) operating at 3.11 Gbps. One embodiment of line unit 118 can provide STS, ATM and or PPP transport modes. An enhancement to allow the transport of both (point-to-point protocol (PPP) and ATM can be provided via the Pre-emptive ATM over PPP method. In this application the HN 110 is used as either a transport or access multiplexer. Line unit 118 can also be used for communication between the HN 110 and FN 112.

[0044] FIG. 6 illustrates that another slot of shelf 114a of HN 110 is used for a line unit 119(A), 119(B) that provides for communication between HN 110 and RAP(A) 122a (or RAP(B) 122b) of FN 112. One embodiment of line unit 19(A)(B) can have up to four OC-3 ports, thereby providing multiple SONET OC-3 interfaces that can be used to communicate between the HN 110 and FN 112 nodes. In this application the HN 110 is typically used as an access multiplexer. Fiber egress to line unit 119 is via four SC connectors. One embodiment of line unit 119 provides STS, ATM and or PPP transport modes. An enhancement to allow the transport of both PPP and ATM can be provided via the Pre-emptive ATM over PPP method.

[0045] The circuit board slots of shelves 114a, 116a of nodes 110, 112 can be populated with optical line units as described above or with additional embodiments of line units 118, 120 that provide standard interfaces to several typical forms of data and/or voice traffic sourced by business and residential users. For example, another embodiment of a line unit 120 is a POTS circuit board that supports up to 25 POTS interfaces. The POTS interfaces support both loop and ground start as well as provisionable characteristic loop impedance and return loss. The bandwidth requirements for this board are low and thus only one active and one standby full duplex serial bus running at 3.11 Gbps are required to couple this line unit to the RAP(A) 122a and RAP(B) 122b respectively.

[0046] Another Line Unit that can be used in the system is a 24 port Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) board that supports 24 Full Rate ADSL interfaces. ADSL is a modem technology that converts existing twisted-pair telephone lines into access paths for multimedia and high-speed data communications. ADSL can transmit up to 6 Mbps to a subscriber, and as much as 832 Kbps or more in both directions (full duplex). The line coding technique used is discrete multi-tone (DMT) and may also function in a G.Lite mode to conserve power. The circuit board does not include POTS splitters, which must be deployed in a sub-system outside of the shelf 116a. One embodiment of the 24 port ADSL line unit is constructed with quad port framers. Because the bandwidth requirements for this line unit are typically low, once again only one active and one standby bus running at 3.1 Gbps are required to couple the line unit to the RAP(A) 122aand RAP(B) 122b of shelf 116a.

[0047] Another line unit that can be employed with the system of FIG. 6 is a twelve port POTS/DSL combo-board that supports12 POTS and 12 Full Rate ADSL interfaces. The combo-board is the melding of half of a POTS and half of an ADSL line unit as discussed above. The POTS interfaces support both loop and ground start as well as provision able characteristic loop impedance and return loss. The ADSL line-coding technique used is DMT and may also function in a G.Lite mode to conserve power. In one embodiment, quad port ADSL framers may be employed to condition the ADSL traffic. Because the bandwidth requirements for this line unit are typically low, only one active and one standby serial bus running at 31. Gbps are required to interface the line unit with the RAP(A) 122a and RAP(B) 122b respectively.

[0048] Another line unit that can be employed within the system illustrated in FIG. 6 is a twelve port DS-1 board that supports up to 12 DS-1 interfaces. An embodiment of the DS-1 line unit supports DSX-1 interfaces. Optionally, the card supports twelve dry T-1 interfaces. Switching current sources are included to support twelve powered T-1 interfaces. Again, because the bandwidth requirements for this line unit are low, only one active and one standby bus running at 3.1 Gbps are required to connect the line unit to the RAP(A) and RAP(B) respectively. For this line unit, data traffic flows over a Utopia 2 interface. Control and provisioning information is communicated over a PCI bus. Control and provisioning information for T1 framers/line interfaces is communicated over a serial interface. An edge stream processor (ESP) provides an ATM adaptation layer (AAL) 1/2 adaptation function for all 12 framer interfaces. The ESP terminates structured DSO traffic TDM cross-connect switching or time stamps asynchronous DS1 traffic for Hi-Cap transport. The ESP processor is also capable of terminating PPP framed DS1 traffic for either Layer 2 tunneling (L2TP) or Layer 3 routing.

[0049] Another line unit 118, 120 that can be used in the system of FIG. 6 is an eight port DS3 board that supports up to 8 DS-3 interfaces. In one embodiment of this line unit, each interface may be provisioned to terminate either an ATM UNI (ATM unicast), PPP or Channelized Hi-Capacity DS3 service. A routing stream processor supports either ATM or PPP by queuing and scheduling DS-3 traffic for packet transport through the RAP. A DS3_Mapper supports the Hi-Cap DS3 by mapping DS-3 traffic into an STS1 channel for low latency transport through the RAP.

[0050] Another line unit 118, 120 that can be used in conjunction with the system of FIG. 6 is a single port STS1 board. In one embodiment of the STS-1 board, a mode selectable single STS 1 or DS-3 interface is supported.

[0051] Another line unit 118, 120 that can be used in conjunction with the system of FIG. 6 is a single port OC48 Interface board. The single port OC48 line unit provides a single SONET OC-48 interface to provide connectivity to the Edge/Core Network. In this application the HN 110 is used primarily as a transport level add/drop multiplexer. In a preferred embodiment, fiber egress is via two SC connectors. SONET framers provide STS, ATM and or PPP transport modes. An enhancement to allow the transport of both PPP and ATM is provided via a Pre-emptive ATM over PPP method.

[0052] Still one more line unit 118, 120 that can be used in conjunction with the system shown in FIG. 6 is a twelve port Fiber to the Business (FTTB) board. The twelve port FTTB assembly provides a single OC-12 SONET interface out and twelve OC-1 SONET interfaces in. In one embodiment of this line unit, a unique integrated splitter arrangement allows sharing of the single laser diode over twelve business subscribers. Twelve discrete PIN diode receivers will be provided to allow a single interface per each of the twelve business subscribers. This method allows simple and inexpensive fault isolation and efficient bandwidth management amongst the entire pool of business subscribers. The interface provided to the subscriber is a single fiber with a single lambda down and a separate lambda up. This arrangement reduces fiber bulk and cost. The dual Lambda arrangement allows a simpler splitter implementation to be realized in a “silica on silicon” waveguide device. The FTTB line unit is coupled through the backplane to RAP(A) 124a through one active serial bus (and to RAP(B) 124b as well through one inactive bus for back-up) operating at 3.11 Gbps.

[0053] Thus, it can be seen from the foregoing discussion that the network element is designed to permit the largest number of customer applications to be supported within a single shelf HN and single shelf FN. While the system of FIG. 6 is optimized towards a single shelf per node configuration, expansion to a multi-shelf per node configuration is also supported in a deterministic and modular fashion. Typically co-located shelves are connected in a Uni-directional Path Switched Ring (UPSR) arrangement via the RAP mounted optics as illustrated in FIG. 6 by the addition of shelves 114b, and 114c to HN 110. This provides a simple, incremental means of local expansion. Local expansion can also be implemented in a point-to-point fashion, however, at the expense of slots and cost. A single HN 110 may host many FNs 112 in a variety of topologies. FNs 110 may be subtended from an HN 110 in point-to-point, linear chain, branch and continue, UPSR or bi-directional line switched ring (BLSR) arrangement. An extremely large network of over 20,000 subscribers may be constructed from the HN/FN hierarchy as illustrated in FIG. 6.

[0054] Line units 118, 120 (FIG. 6) are split out into an input side 130a and output side 130b for clarity in FIG. 7 (which is also shown without the AMP). Those of skill in the art will recognize that the input and output paths of each line unit 134a(1-n), 134b(1-n) respectively, will typically reside on one circuit board and may even share some of the same circuits. Each output path 134b(1-n) produces an output 136b(1-n) in the form of cells, samples and packets. The line cards can be of a lower bandwidth nature (e.g. line unit 138a1/38b1), such as the twenty-four port POTS unit, the twenty-four port DSL unit, and the twelve port POTS/DSL combo unit as previously described. Some of the line units are high bandwidth (e.g. line unit 134an/134bn), such as the twelve port DS1/T1 unit, the eight port DS3 unit, and the ST-1, OC-3, OC-12 and OC-48 units, all of which require an ESP/RSP 142a, 142b to perform pre-processing of the traffic.

[0055] Line unit input paths 134a(1-n) perform the function of interfacing with the physical layer of a data source to receive data traffic over inputs 136a(1-n) in the form of cells, samples or packets, depending upon the source type, and then grooming the traffic through its circuitry (called GAP which is an abbreviation for GigaPoint Access Processor) 140a(1-n) so that it can be switched by the matrix 137 of switch 133 to any one or more of the line unit output paths 134b(1-n). The line unit output paths 134b(1-n) perform the function of taking the routed traffic and converting it back to the physical layer format expected by the receiver to which it is coupled. The interfacing function is represented by input path circuits Phy 138a(1-n) and Phy output path circuits 138b(1-n). The traffic for higher bandwidth traffic sources often requires an additional layer of circuitry 142a, 142b for grooming the data traffic, such as an RSP, an ESP and/or quad framers.

[0056] The input path GAP 140a(1-n) for each line unit input path 134a(1-n) transmits groomed and serialized data traffic over one or more high-speed serial input buses 132a(1-n) to the switch 133, where the serialized data is converted to parallel data for switching. With respect to the output path 134b(1-n) of each line unit, a transmit portion of output path GAP 140b(1-n) residing within switch 133 (not shown) serializes switched data traffic and transmits it over high-speed serial output buses 132b(1-n) to the receive portion of each GAP residing in the line unit output paths. From there, the data traffic is adapted back to the physical layer protocol spoken by the destination for the outgoing traffic. The input path GAP 140a(1-n) of each line unit provides data to switch 133 as asynchronous packet traffic, TDM and multicast synchronous packet traffic, and channelized STS data traffic. Likewise, the output path GAP 40b(1-n) of each line unit receives data in one of the foregoing forms from the switch 133, and adapts it to the requisite physical layer of the traffic destination.

[0057] The switch 133 includes the active RAP(A) 144 and back-up RAP(B) 146. Each RAP includes a switch unit (called GRX which is an abbreviation for GigaPoint Routing Cross-connect) 139. GRX 139 further includes an arbiter 135 and a matrix 137 by which the conditioned data traffic arriving over the input side of any of the serial buses is switched to the appropriate output side of one or more of the serial buses coupled to the destination for that conditioned traffic.

[0058] In one embodiment (FIG. 8), there are twenty-four I/O ports for GRX 139 that are coupled to the backplane. Twenty of the I/O ports couple line units 134(1-n) to the GRX 139 through full-duplex serial buses 132(1-20). One port 132(21) couples RAP(A) 44 to the outside world through input 136(21). Another port that is not shown couples RAP(B) (also not shown) to the outside world and the last port (not shown) couples the AMP (not shown) of shelf 116a to the outside world. The line units 134(1-n) are shown with both their input and output paths.

[0059] One possible combination of specific line units is illustrated in FIG. 8 to illustrate the versatility of the system. Twenty-four port POTS unit 134(1) interfaces to the GRX 139 over serial bus GP—1 132(1), and has twenty-five telephone interface inputs 136(1) coupled to five quad codecs 138(1), which in turn interface with GAP 40(1). A twelve port DS1 unit 134(10) having twelve DS1 interfaces coupled to three quad Ti framers 138(10), the outputs of which are processed by ESP 142(10), sends and receives conditioned traffic through GAP 140(10) to GRX 139 over serial bus GP—10 132(10). Four port OC3 units 134(11) and 134(n) are each coupled to GRX 139 over two serial buses GP—11 132(11), GP—12 132(12) and GP—19 312(10), GP20 132(20) respectively. Each unit provides a total bandwidth equivalent to OC-12, handling bidirectional OC-3 traffic over OC-3 I/Os 136(11) and 136(n) respectively. The line units 134(11), 134(n) interface with the OC-3 traffic by way of OC-12 framer/phy 138(11), 138(n) respectively and data is transferred to and from the GRX 139 by way of GAP 40(11), 40(n) respectively.

[0060] Those of skill in the art will recognize that any combination of the line units described herein, or any that are designed to interface with and condition data traffic to be transmitted and received over a backplane bus by way of a GAP in the form of asynchronous packet traffic, TDM and multicast synchronous packet traffic, and channelized STS data traffic can be employed in shelf 116a of FIG. 8.

[0061] The present invention is able to serve a broad range of network access functions because it handles both synchronous and asynchronous classes of traffic over a common fabric. In prior art multi-class solutions, these types of traffic are typically handled separately over separate bus systems. Such a solution to the problem is not desirable because though it makes handling the traffic simpler, it does not provide advantages of flexibility and lower cost.

[0062] With reference to FIG. 9, a conceptual block diagram of the present invention is depicted that facilitates seeing the flow of the different types of traffic through the common switch fabric. Line unit 118, 120 consists of GAP 134a,b (both transmit and receive paths). As previously discussed, The GAP 140 interconnects traffic from the serial (GigaPoint) bus 132a,b (transmit and receive) to physical interfaces that make up part of the line units such as OC-48, POTS etc. The GAP 140 receives and transmits TDM and packet base traffic over the GigaPoint Bus 132. The Gap 140 also transmits local queue status over the GigaPoint bus 132. It receives control and arbitration information over the GigaPoint Bus 132, and maps POTS Codec traffic into an internal packet format. The GAP supports VoQ with 2 classes of service toward the GigaPoint bus. The GAP supports AAL-5 by way of a Hardware SAR (Segmentation and Reassembly) engine, termination of SONET transport overhead bytes and implements a time slot interchange (TSI) for DSO traffic. For more information regarding the GAP, refer to the “GigaPoint Access Processor (GAP) ASIC Functional Specification,” attached hereto as Attachment G.

[0063] The GAP includes a Transmit/Receive GP MAC (Media Access Controller), that handles transmitting and receiving communicating both STS and packet traffic through the serial high speed GigaPoint bus through SerDes (Gigabit Ethernet serializer/deserializer) 152. The mixture of packet and STS traffic is simply squeezed down and transmitted over a high speed link to transport the traffic between the GAP, across the backplane of the system, and the common switch fabric represented by GRX 139. Another transmit/receive SerDes 154 resides on the GRX 139 that is interfaced with another receive/transmit MAC 156. For information regarding the details regarding the high-speed bus architecture, refer to the “GigaPoint Bus Hardware Architectural Specification,” which is attached hereto as Attachment F.

[0064] In the GRX139, the receive GP MAC 156a accepts combined asynchronous and synchronous traffic from a line unit through the SerDes core and distributes it to the packet crosspoint 158 and synchronous crosspoint 160 respectively. STS bytes and synchronous packets (TDM and multicast) are driven to the synchronous crosspoint 160 over a 40-bit parallel bus. Unicast packets are sent over a 64-bit FIFO interface to the packet crosspoint 158. An eight-bit packet arrival word is extracted by each receive MAC and driven to the arbiter 135. The arrival word is sent with an arrival strobe, as well as downstream GigaPoint and grant backpressure signals.

[0065] The GRX transmit GigaPoint MAC 156b receives data bound for the serial bus to line unit 188, 120 over three buses; the 64-bit asynchronous packet bus 164, the 40-bit synchronous bus 166 and the 8-bit arbiter bus 162. Asynchronous bus data is read from the packet crosspoint's output FIFO. Synchronous data (STS, TDM and multicast packets) is received from the synchronous crosspoint at timeslots relative to superframe sync and in accordance with bandwidth allocation of the particular link by way of a channel map configuration. Packet grant information is transported from the GigaPoint arbiter 135 to the TX MAC in a manner similar to that of packet arrival information.

[0066] For more information regarding the implementation of the GP MAC, refer to the “GigaPoint Media Access Controller (GP MAC) Module Specification” attached hereto as Attachment E.

[0067] A block diagram of the GRX ASIC is depicted in FIG. 10. In the receive path, the GigaPoint Rx MAC modules 156a(1)-a(n) interface with the GigaPoint SerDes receiver 154(1). The Rx MACs extract packet arrival and backpressure fields from the GigaPoint packet headers and pass the information to the GigaPoint Arbiter 135 and GigaPoint Tx MACs 156a(1)-a(n) respectively. The GigaPoint Rx MAC modules also provide data layer decoding by splitting STS, TDM, multicast packet, and unicast packet traffic. In one embodiment, only unicast packet traffic is routed to the Packet Crosspoint 158 and the other traffic types are routed to the Synchronous Crosspoint 160. Loosely scheduled TDM and multicast traffic could be routed through the packet cross-connect 158, but it is actually more convenient to route these types of packet traffic through the synchronous cross-connect 160 as well. In the transmit path, the GigaPoint Tx MAC 156b(1)-b(n) modules combine the various traffic types output by the crosspoints 158, 160 and output them to the GigaPoint SerDes Transmitters 154(1)-n. Also, the Tx MACs insert packet grants and backpressure fields into the GigaPoint packet headers. The Packet Crosspoint 158 snoops on the Packet Grant 302 and Packet Arrival 300 interfaces in support of the grant audit mechanism.

[0068] For detailed information concerning the implementation details for the synchronous cross-connect 160, refer to cross-referenced U.S. application entitled “Switching of Multiple Classes of Synchronous Data Traffic,” by Ying Zheng and the “GRX ASIC Synchronous Crosspoint Module Specification,” attached hereto as Attachment D. For more detailed information regarding the asynchronous cross-connect 158, refer to cross-referenced U.S. application entitled “Receive And Transmit Packet Crosspoint” by James W. Jones and the “GRX ASIC Packet Crosspoint Module Specification,” attached hereto as Attachment C.

[0069] In one embodiment, traffic carried over the serial links between the GAP 140 and the GRX 139 is classified in to three primary groups. As shown in FIG. 11, 60 GigaPoint channels 310 are pre-allocated for STS 312, TDM/Multicast 316, or Unicast traffic314. Fixed TDM FLP (fixed length packet) slots are then defined within the channels allocated to TDM. Each TDM FLP slot is 64 bytes long and remains at a fixed location with respect to the 125 us frame sync until the TDM pipe is re-sized. TDM traffic shares its bandwidth with Multicast traffic, which means that software needs to take into account the bandwidth requirements of Multicast when provisioning TDM.

[0070] Each GigaPoint bus can support the transport of STS traffic in designated timeslots in a 125 us frame window. Traffic in channels sharing the same channel designator can be merged as it is passed through the 24:1 masked muxes. This function allows a VT1.5 cross-connect function to be implemented by aligning VT1.5s within the appropriate STS channel(s).

[0071] Thus, those of skill in the art will recognize that combining and routing both asynchronous and synchronous traffic across a common fabric reduces system implementation size as well as makes the invention easily configured to handle numerous legacy applications network applications, as well as to combine such applications into one system. Moreover, the flexibility in provisioning bandwidth among the traffic types makes the invention configurable for serving applications from the subscriber edge of a network up to the edge of the core of a network.

[0072] Numerous modifications and adaptations of the embodiments described herein will be apparent to the skilled artisan in view of the disclosure.

[0073] While in one embodiment, a network element of the type described herein does not provide call processing functions, in another embodiment call processing may be supported by a network element of the type described herein.

[0074] Numerous such modifications and adaptations are encompassed by the attached claims.

Claims

1. A network element for a communication network, the network element comprising: a first line unit comprising circuitry to support subscriber equipment; and a second line unit comprising circuitry to support a link to core of the communication network; and a chassis, each of the first line unit and the second line unit being installed said chassis.

2. The network element of claim 1 further comprising: a switch unit having a first port coupled to the first line unit and a second port coupled to the second line unit, the switch unit being installed in said chassis.

3. The network element of claim 1 wherein: the first line unit carries traffic from and to the subscriber equipment; and the second line unit carries said traffic sequentially thereby to pass said traffic to and from said core of the communication network.

4. The network element of claim 1 further comprising: a switch unit having a first port coupled to the first line unit and a second port coupled to the second line unit, the switch unit being installed in said chassis, the switch unit comprising a cross-connect.

5. The network element of claim 4 wherein: the cross-connect includes a synchronous cross-connect and an asynchronous cross-connect.

6. The network element of claim 5 wherein: at one time the synchronous cross-connect transfers traffic between the first line unit and the second line unit; and at another time the asynchronous cross-connect transfers traffic between the first line unit and the second line unit.