摘要 |
A telephony and data network (figure 1) is achieved by integrating a plurality of signal switching circuits in circuit hub devices. The devices (Hubs) each resemble a typical 10 Base-T, 8 port ethernet hub in size and outward appearance and preferably has an 8 port interface. This interface is constructed and arranged to interconnect to phone lines directed from a standard analog signal handling telephone set, and also from a telephone system central office. It therefore acts as an interface device between these two points in the telephone network. Each Hub provides a signal processing circuit having digital/analog signal converting capability in the form of standard telephone coder-decoder circuits. These Codec circuits are supervised by a digital signal processor which is a part of the signal processing circuit of the Hub. The Hub circuit also provides a general-purpose microprocessor capable of handling LAN communications. The Hub is configured to communicate over a LAN with any standard protocol. Software is written to allow interfacing with common personal computer operating systems and applications.
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