Packet telephony appliance
View Patent ↗A packet telephony appliance includes a Euphony network processor that integrates networking and DSP functions to provide a low cost and efficient solution in building a networked appliance. In particular, a Euphony ATM Telephone (EAT) is built around the Euphony network processor. The EAT uses a real-time operating system to provide predictable processing and networking support. The EAT implements IObufs, which provides a unified buffering scheme that allows zero-copy data movement. Furthermore, the EAT uses an Event Exchange (EVX), which provides a flexible mechanism for event distribution, allowing software modules to be composed together in an extensible manner. EVX and IObufs are used together to provide highly efficient intra-appliance communication. The EAT provides a platform that can evolve gracefully to support new protocols, advanced telephony services and enhanced user interfaces.
1. An apparatus for providing a system software service in a packet telephony appliance having a plurality of modules, comprising:
means for loading and executing a real-time single address space operating system kernel;
means for implementing a unified buffering mechanism across all modules in the packet telephony appliance, where the unified buffering mechanism is a zero-copy mechanism for storing and passing data; and
means for implementing an event-based mechanism for communicating between the modules.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said real-time single address space operating system kernel is a VxWorks kernel.
3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said unified buffering mechanism employs IObufs.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said event-based mechanism is an Event Exchange inter-module communication mechanism.
5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said means for implementing said even-based mechanism comprises:
means for creating at least one sending port and at least one receiving port for each module;
means for initializing said at least one sending port and said at least one receiving port;
means for setting a queue size of said at least one sending port to control flow;
means for posting events to said at least one sending port; and
means for delivering posted events to said at least one receiving port.
6. The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the means for implementing said event-based mechanism further comprises:
means for processing delivered events; and
means for issuing an acknowledgement.