Concurrent transmission of traffic from multiple communication interfaces
View Patent ↗Line termination units having dual ports for accepting communication traffic of two different types facilitate the concurrent transmission of voice traffic, serial data traffic and packetized data traffic across a telecommunication transport system, such as a DSL (digital subscriber line) system. The bandwidth of the telecommunication transport system is allocated between the differing traffic types to permit the full utilization of the available bandwidth.
1. A termination unit for use in a digital subscriber line system, comprising:
a first communication interface receiving first traffic having a bandwidth;
a second communication interface receiving second traffic different from the first traffic; and
a third communication interface for coupling to a digital subscriber line;
wherein the termination unit combines the first traffic received at the first communication interface with the second traffic received at the second communication interface, thereby generating a combined traffic, and to provide the combined traffic to the third communication interface; and
wherein the combined traffic has a bandwidth greater than or equal to the bandwidth of the first traffic;
wherein the second traffic is unframed;
wherein the first traffic is frame;
wherein the combined traffic is framed when the first traffic has a non-zero bandwidth and is unframed when the first traffic has a zero bandwidth.
2. The termination unit of claim 1 , wherein the first communication interface is a G.703/704 interface.
3. The termination unit of claim 1 , wherein the second communication interface is an N×64 Kbps serial dataport interface.
4. The termination unit of claim 1 , wherein the third communication interface is a G.shdsl interface.
5. A termination unit for use in a digital subscriber line system, comprising:
a first communication interface receiving first traffic having a first number of timeslots, each timeslot corresponding to an incremental bit rate, wherein a number (N 1 ) of timeslots used for payload is less than or equal to the first number of timeslots;
a second communication interface receiving second traffic, wherein the second traffic has a bit rate equal to some multiple (N 2 ) of the incremental bit rate; and
a third communication interface for coupling to a digital subscriber line and for providing a combined traffic having a second number of timeslots, each timeslot corresponding to the incremental bit rate, wherein the second number of timeslots is greater than or equal to N 1 +N 2 ;
wherein the termination unit maps the times lots of the first traffic to a first portion of the timeslots of the combined traffic;
wherein the termination unit maps the second traffic to a second portion of the timeslots of the combined traffic;
wherein the first portion of timeslots has a number of timeslots less than or equal to the first number of timeslots and greater than or equal to N 1 .
6. A method of communicating across a digital subscriber line system, comprising:
receiving a first traffic having a bandwidth;
receiving a second traffic different from the first traffic and concurrently with the first traffic;
combining data of the first traffic with the data of the second traffic, thereby generating a combined traffic; and
providing the combined traffic to a digital subscriber line of the digital subscriber line system;
wherein the second traffic is unframed;
wherein the first traffic is framed;
wherein the combined traffic is framed when the first traffic has a non-zero bandwidth and is unframed when the first traffic has a zero bandwidth.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the first traffic is E1 traffic.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein the second traffic is serial data.
9. The method of claim 6 , wherein the digital subscriber line is a single-pair high bit-rate digital subscriber line.
10. A method of communicating across a digital subscriber line system, comprising:
receiving first traffic having a first number of timeslots, each timeslot corresponding to an incremental bit rate, wherein a number (N 1 ) of timeslots used for payload is less than or equal to the first number of timeslots;
receiving second traffic, wherein the second traffic has a bit rate equal to some multiple (N 2 ) of the incremental bit rate;
combining the first traffic and the second traffic to generate a combined traffic having a second number of timeslots, each timeslot corresponding to the incremental bit rate, wherein the second number of timeslots is greater than or equal to N 1 +N 2 ;
mapping the timeslots of the first traffic to a first portion of the timeslots of the combined traffic; and
mapping the second traffic to a second portion of the timeslots of the combined traffic;
wherein the first portion of timeslots has a number of timeslots less than or equal to the first number of timeslots and greater than or equal to N 1 .