Importance

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Abstract

A termination device for connection to a group of TDM (time division multiplexed) trunks is capable of sending cells over one or more links either individually or as part of an inverse multiplexed group. The device includes a Utopia interface for receiving an incoming cell stream, a buffer for storing incoming cells at specific memory locations identified by pointers obtained from a queue of available pointers, a round robin scheduler for sequentially assigning cells to links forming an IMA group or individually in the UNI mode, and a pointer queue for each channel address, the pointer queue indicating the location of the next cell to be transmitted for each virtual channel. An adaptive shaper determines when a stuff cell is inserted and a per link output circuit places cells on the links, which can operate in CTC or ITC mode. The device can operate in mixed mode where up to four IMA and/or up to eight UNI channels can be supported concurrently. The links assigned to the IMA or UNI channels is programmable.

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First Claim