Method and apparatus for controlling bandwidth in a switched broadband multipoint/multimedia network

摘要

The present invention provides broadband multimedia communication over the standard circuit-switched public switched telephone network infrastructure (PSTN) and other physical or virtual circuit-switched infrastructures while simultaneously and transparently interoperating with the public Internet packet-switched infrastructure to effectively merge the capabilities of the two types of infrastructures into a seamless capability that can bring the benefits of using both types of existing switching infrastructures to large groups of users under the control of the same common and simple interface tools such as web browsers. The invention enables users to establish both packet-switched connections for sending or receiving content for which low-latency and unpredictable response times are not a problem (i.e. text, small graphics, e-mail, small file transfers); and circuit-switched connections for sending or receiving content that benefits from streaming data at fixed data rates, without contention for bandwidth from other users during a communication session, (i.e. video, voice, complex graphics and animations, or large file transfers). The broadband network of the present invention thus mates the convenience of point-and-click on-demand Internet-type packet-switched connectivity with the continuity of a circuit-switch connection, and bundles B channels, or controls connections on virtual circuit switches such as ATM or RSVP for the required bandwidth on-demand for video conferencing and other high-bandwidth applications.