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Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for efficiently managing bandwidth operative in a digital loop carrier system. The system includes service cards connectable to at least one transport card having a given bandwidth capacity. Each of the service cards supports multiple subscriber channels. Upon initiation of a first call, the system allocates the call to a given time slot of the transport card. The given time slot is assigned a given default bandwidth, e.g., 64 kbps. While the first call is in progress, the system determines whether the call is voice or data. If the first call is voice, the system may selectively reduce the given default bandwidth allocated to the first call if necessary to ensure that a second call, if initiated while the first call remains in progress, can be assigned the given default bandwidth. Efficient bandwidth management is provided by an inventive linked list optimization scheme, which includes a linked list of words, each associated with a time slot. The linked list is periodically searched to identify words whose associated time slots have not been analyzed to determine if a call allocated to the time slot is a voice or data call. To increase processing efficiency, only the identified time slots are analyzed.

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First Claim