Michael A Mcloughlin5103 Applewood Cir, Kent Lakes, NY 10512

6282191, Aug 28, 2001

Aug 10, 1999

9/371196

John Cumberton - Danbury CT
Pasquale Cassella - Woodbridge CT
Ramanathan Ramanathan - Woburn MA
Michael McLoughlin - Bethlehem CT
Xing Chen - Plano TX

General DataComm, Inc. - Middlebury CT

H04M 700
H04L 1228
H04L 1256
H04L 1266

370352

A SS7 signalling router receives SS7 signalling regarding narrowband calls to be routed over the ATM network. When the SS7 router receives signalling from the SS7 network, it does not process the signalling, but reads the originator point code (OPC) and forwards the signalling via the ATM network to the ATM switch which is attached to the originator of the message. An interworking function (IWF) at the ATM switch processes the SS7 signalling by generating the appropriate ATM signalling to set up a circuit between the originating ATM switch and the destination ATM switch. The IWF at the originating ATM switch also processes the SS7 signalling by returning it to the SS7 router with the destination point code (DPC) of the PSTN switch coupled to the destination ATM switch. When the SS7 router receives an SS7 signalling message from an ATM switch, it forwards it to the SS7 network where it is sent to the DPC. The IWF at each ATM switch is preferably distributed among several processors including a signalling VSM controller (an SVSM), a plurality of VSM controllers and an ISUP controller.