Method of telephone signalling via data link

Claim 3

A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising the steps of: a) storing in a first peripheral interface circuit messages to be sent via the signalling trunks in an array arranged by trunk addresses which define a destination switching office to which the messages are destined, b) once a group of stored messages relating to a particular trunk has achieved a predetermined size, formatting the group into a complete signalling message and transmitting it via the signalling trunk addressed by said signalling trunk address to said destination switching office, c) storing complete signalling messages that have been transmitted in a message queue, d) receiving acknowledgement of receipt of transmitted signalling messages from a destination switching office, and e) erasing complete signalling messages from the message queue once an acknowledgement of a corresponding transmitted signalling message has been received.

Claim 4

A telephone switching system comprising: a) a main control for controlling the processing of calls, b) peripheral interface circuits, c) a peripheral control for communicating with the main control and controlling the peripheral interface circuits, d) a signalling peripheral interface circuit connected between a peripheral control and a signalling link, e) means in the signalling peripheral interface circuit for storing a table comprising signalling trunk addresses and corresponding voice trunk addresses, f) means in the signalling peripheral interface circuit for receiving an incoming signalling message from the signalling link, and converting the message into signalling messages of a type reconizable as received from a voice trunk, g) means for looking up in said table a correspondence between a signalling trunk address in said incoming signalling message and a voice trunk address, and h) means for passing said voice trunk address with said signalling messages to the main control, whereby the main control is enabled to process a call incoming on the voice trunk as if said signalling messages had been received on the voice trunk.

Claim 5

A telephone switching system comprising: a) a main control for controlling the processing of calls, b) peripheral interface circuits, c) a peripheral control for communicating with the main control and controlling the peripheral interface circuits, d) a signalling peripheral interface circuit connected between a peripheral control and a signalling link, e) means in the signalling peripheral interface circuit for storing a table comprising signalling trunk addresses and corresponding voice trunk addresses, f) means in the signalling peripheral interface circuit for receiving an incoming signalling message from the signalling link, and converting the message into signalling messages of a type reconizable as received from a voice trunk, g) means for looking up in said table a correspondence between a signalling trunk address in said incoming signalling message and a voice trunk address, and h) means for passing said voice trunk address with said signalling messages to the main control, whereby the main control is enabled to process a call incoming on the voice trunk as if said signalling messages had been received on the voice trunk.

Claim 8

A method as defined in claim 4, further comprising the steps of: f) receiving said messages to be sent and storing them in a prestorage queue prior to storing them in said array, g) receiving an interruption message in the peripheral interface circuit that includes information that a different peripheral interface circuit will be taking over transmission from the first peripheral interface circuit, h) storing the messages in the prestorage queue immediately preceding the interruption message in said array, i) transmitting all messages contained in said array that have a destination address that can be linked to said different peripheral control circuit, to said different peripheral control circuit, and storing them in an array therein, j) storing said messages to be sent following the interruption messages in a prestorage queue of said different peripheral interface, then storing them into said array in said different peripheral interface, arranged by signalling trunk addresses which define a destination switching office to which the messages are destined, and k) once a group of stored messages relating to a particular trunk has achieved a predetermined size, formatting it into a complete signalling message and transmitting it via the signalling trunk, addressed by said signalling trunk address to said destination switching system.

Claim 9

A method as defined in claim 5, wherein said different peripheral interface circuit of step g) carries out the steps of: g1) storing complete signalling messages that have been transmitted in a message queue, g2) receiving acknowledgement of receipt of transmitted signalling messages from a destination switching system, and g3) erasing complete signalling messages from the message queue once an acknowledgement of a corresponding transmitted signalling message has been received.

Claim 10

A method as defined in claim 5, in which the array is arranged by voice trunk addresses, and further comprising the steps of storing in the peripheral interface circuit a table comprising voice trunk addresses and corresponding signalling trunk addresses, receiving said messages to be sent containing reference to said voice trunk addresses and storing them in the array, looking up in said table signalling trunk addresses corresponding to voice trunk addresses, and using the signalling trunk addresses therein to transmit the complete signalling messages on the signalling trunk.

Claim 11

A method as defined in claim 5, in which the array is arranged by signalling trunk addresses, and further comprising the steps of storing in the peripheral interface circuit a table comprising voice trunk addresses and corresponding signalling trunk addresses, receiving said messages to be sent containing reference to said voice trunk addresses, looking up in said table signalling trunk addresses corresponding to voice trunk addresses, and storing the corresponding messages in the array arranged by said signalling trunk addresses, using the signalling trunk addresses to transmit the complete signalling messages in the signalling trunk.

Claim 12

A method as defined in claim 5, in which said interruption message includes information that plural peripheral interface circuits will be taking over transmission from the first peripheral interface circuit, and transmitting said message to plural destination addresses that can be linked to said plural interface circuits for storage therein.

Claim 13

A method as defined in claim 4, in which the array is arranged by voice trunk addresses, and further comprising the steps of storing in the peripheral interface circuit a table comprising voice trunk addresses and corresponding signalling trunk addresses, receiving said messages to be sent containing reference to said voice trunk addresses and storing them in the array, looking up in said table signalling trunk addresses corresponding to voice trunk addresses, and using the signalling trunk addresses therein to transmit complete signalling messages on the signalling trunk.

Claim 14

A method as defined in claim 10 in which the trunk addresses in the array are pointers to trunk addresses in said table.

Claim 15

A method as defined in claim 4, in which the array is arranged by signalling trunk addresses, and further comprising the steps of storing in the peripheral interface circuit a table comprising voice trunk addresses and corresponding signalling trunk addresses, receiving said messages to be sent containing reference to said voice trunk addresses, looking up in said table signalling trunk addresses corresponding to voice trunk addresses, storing the corresponding messages in the array arranged by said signalling trunk addresses, and using a signalling trunk address to transmit a complete signalling message via the signalling trunk.

Claim 16

A method as defined in claim 12 in which the trunk addresses in the array are pointers to trunk addresses in said table.