COORDINATED CELL DISCHARGE FROM ATM QUEUE

摘要

An ATM switching node has an ATM switch (30) to which at least one inter-node physical link (56) is connected. In addition, a cell handling unit (32) connected to the ATM switch has a centralized queuing resource (230) which queues ATM cells which are to be routed through the ATM switch for transmission from the node on the physical link. ATM cells destined for the physical link from the queuing resource are discharged from the queuing resource in accordance with a parameter of the physical link. The parameter is preferably the capacity (e.g., transmission rate) of the physical link. In the illustrated embodiment, the node is one of the following nodes of a cellular telecommunications network: a base station (42); a base station controller (44); a mobile switching center (46).