Multiplexer capable of carrying constant bit rate traffic or message based traffic

摘要

A pure ATM based multiplexer is incapable, especially at low carrier rates, of satisfactorily carrying constant bit rate traffic or human communication traffic. A multiplex format having a plurality of constant bit rate timeslots in which a timeslot is not in use for constant bit rate traffic can have that timeslot used for message based traffic to provide a composite constant bit rate/message based data stream. The ration of constant bit rate traffic to message based traffic making up the mixed data stream can be constantly changed.