A new architecture capable of utilizing the existing twisted pair interface
between customer premises equipment and an associated serving local
switching office is used to provide a vast array of new services to
customers. Using an intelligent services director (ISD) at the customer
services equipment as an interface for the equipment to an existing
twisted cable pair and a facilities management platform (FMP) at the
serving local switching office as an interface to various networks and
service opportunities, new services such as simultaneous, multiple calls
(voice analog or digital), facsimile, Internet traffic and other data can
be transmitted and received over the twisted cable pair by using digital
subscriber loop transmission schemes. The new services include but are not
limited to videophone, utility meter reading and monitoring, broadcasting
and multicasting. The architecture provides for fault-tolerant,
transparent interaction of components and services and supports a variety
of standards for each level of the open systems interconnection layers and
layers of TCP/IP. The FMP connects electronically or optically to the
public switched telephone network, Internet backbone, a private Intranet
as well as other possible network connections.
