Abstract:
The basic idea is provide several spare boards at least on thereof being associated to a different chain of boards. By connecting the spare boards of the different board chains, a pool of spare boards is obtained. Thus, the associations of the spare boards to respective chains are, at least virtually, resolved allowing to employ the spare boards for healing of failures for any of the boards in the different chains. In particular, the present inventions allows a healing of several failures independently of the location of a failure in the chains. The number of spare boards in the different chains determines the number of pool spare boards and, thus, the minimum number of failures which can be healed. In order to increase the number healable failures, the number of spare boards in the different chains can be increased. Further, it contemplated to operate and to re-configure at least one of the board(s) originally forming one of the different chains, spare board(s) already used for failure healing and chain(s) such that an increased number failures are compensated without the need for an increased number of spare boards.
Abstract:
The basic idea underlying the present invention is to operate a data communications device serving as a data traffic interface, such as a packet control unit or packet server, e.g. originally used according to PDH such that components thereof, e.g. boards, having a lower performance, e.g. data rate, are cooperatively operated to support a desired higher performance. In particular, higher load due to the higher performance to be achieved are distributed to components which are not capable to support the higher load by its own. In detail, the present invention teaches to operate boards of such a data traffic interface device as a chain of boards, wherein boards of the chain share data traffic processing load required for a desired higher data traffic performance.