METHOD FOR EXTENDING THE SWITCHING MATRIX OF A COMMUNICATIONSYSTEM WITHOUT INTERRUPTION

摘要

The invention relates to a method for expanding a switching network of a communications system without interrupting operation. In order to increase t he call-handling capacity of a communications system it is first necessary to expand the switching network, as the central component. According to prior art, this involves interrupting operation and completely switching off the switching network. After the necessary changes have been made, the connectio ns that have been interrupted have to be re-established, which can be very expensive in the case of ATM connections, for example. The aim of the invention is to solve this problem. According to the inventive method, space is reserved for the routing addresses of the largest upgrade, both in the header translation table of the interface devices and in the cell head of ea ch ATM-cell, and a system split is provided for gradually replacing the old switching network modules by new switching network modules. Insofar as they lead to the same interface devices at the output end as via the old switchin g network modules, the routes via the new switching network modules can be addressed with the same routing addresses.