A CONTROL ARCHITECTURE USING AN EMBEDDED SIGNAL STATUS PROTOCOL

摘要

A network element with a centralized switch fabric is able to support multip le switching functions while meeting established performance requirements by us ing a control system based on an embedded signal status protocol. Generally, each input signal within a transmission path is monitored to derive signal status infor mation, which is then individually encoded and embedded within the input signal. The embedded signal status can be decoded and provided as input to control logic forprocessing at any point within the transmission path , as necessary. In the case of a centralized switch fabric, the control logic resolves an address of a single input signal based on the embedded signal status and provides this resolved address to th e switch fabric so that the appropriate input signal can be selected. In the present invention, the control logic may be configured to support any given application, e.g., "path-in-line" protection switching, whereby each configuration of control logic constitute s anapplication control set that supports the performanc e requirements of that givenapplication.