A flexible system concept for an integrated broadband customer premises network

A system concept is presented which aims at providing an evolutionary strategy towards the forthcoming IBCN which will be based on ATM techniques, by offering a way for the continuing use of preexisting components in the new broadband environment and minimizing complexity and costs for their integration into future broadband networks. The concept is open to a number of possible evolutionary scenarios, with different weights of ISDN and data communication services. Flexibility is assured also by the proposed solution for the ATM switch. Although physically centralized, the basic switch is based on a parallel ring that interconnects a number of access modules on a 32 bit wide backplane running at 155.52 Mbit/s. Whenever technically and economically convenient, the backplane can evolve to a fully distributed backbone network, more in line with the concept of LANs