METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SWITCHING DIGITAL TDM SIGNALS OF DIFFERENT RATES

摘要

A digital telecommunications switching system includes a main normal rate switch having multiple, bi-directional ports for selectively switching timeslot associated with normal rate channels multiplexed on incoming and outgoing digital links. Each timeslot in the frame includes a predetermined number of bits. The normal rate switch switches timeslots received from any one of the switch ports to any one of the other switch ports at the normal rate. An "add-on" subrate switch is modularly connected to the normal rate switch and selectively switches one or more bits corresponding to one or more subrate channels within a timeslot at a data transmission rate which is less than the normal rate.