WO2001047196A2

WO2001047196A2 - Multi-segment distribution system for high speed network services and method of use thereof

Info

Publication number: WO2001047196A2
Application number: PCT/US2000/041574
Authority: WO
Inventors: Renney E. Senn; Clifford W. Gartung; Thomas E. Mitchell
Original assignee: Holocom Networks
Priority date: 1999-10-27
Filing date: 2000-10-25
Publication date: 2001-06-28
Also published as: WO2001047196A3

Abstract

Communication system architecture and supporting hardware components that facilitate multi-user, multi-provider high speed, high capacity telecommunications desktop access and service throughout a building floor, a multi-floor building or across a multi-building campus, and methods of use thereof, are disclosed. The system manages and distributes multiple services through permanent, in-place, multiple tier network architecture which provides individualized access and service to each tenant and also allows each tenant to configure its own internal network recabling, reconfiguration or disruption of the overall network. Tier level routing devices have multiplexing capability and are selective for individual communications running over the system, so that only the telecommunications information packets intended for users on or downstream from the specific ring are extracted from the system traffic and delivered through the output ring. The remainder of the traffic continues through the higher tier input ring and is selected at other respective devices.

Description

MULTI-SEGMENT DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR HIGH SPEED NETWORK SERVICES AND METHOD OF USE THEREOF

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many businesses today organize their employee spaces into a mix of conventional fixed-wall offices and clusters of interconnected modular furniture cubicles. Use of such cubicle clusters allows a company to rearrange working spaces as needed to provide an optimum work environment at any given time. Whether considering fixed-wall offices or cubicles, a major concern for businesses is the ability to provide integrated voice, video, data and other communication services directly to the employees' desktops in the most efficient manner. Systems for telecommunications transmissions to the desktop have included predominantly copper wire because of its economy and/or, on rare occasions, optical fiber cable and wireless links to provide connectivity for computers, telephones, facsimile machines, Internet access, broadband video and other telecommunications equipment (collectively, "telecommunications appliances"). Currently systems exist which provide for transmissions within local area networks (LANs) using dedicated Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet and other protocols at speeds of 10-1000 Mb/sec (Megabits per second).

Difficulties with installation and reconfiguration of horizontal wire and cable networks in the office environment (collectively, "horizontal cabling") have been overcome by the introductions of efficient cable management systems, a successful one of which is described and claimed in U.S. Patent No. 5,831 ,211 and commercially available from the assignee of this application, Holocom Networks Inc. of Carlsbad, California, under the trademark TOPRUNNER®. Systems such as the TOPRUNNER® system have also reduced the number and extent of single target "home run" cable installations, in favor of cables which runs to cubicle/office clusters where they are connected to a passive patch panel from which are run short individual "patch cord" cables (usually of copper wire) to the appropriate desktop communications appliances.

While physical installation with easy reconfiguration has therefore been provided, significant problems and needs remain. Currently it is common for a number of service providers to have parallel networks installed in, for instance, a multi-floor office building. This results in inefficient service distribution, unnecessary redundancy, difficulties in locating and resolving system faults, excessive raceway and connection area space requirements, and similar problems, all of which increase as the number of networks within the building multiply. There is also confusion among service providers and tenants within the building, with respect to what services can be provided, by what provider, and to what areas of the building.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention herein is a novel network infrastructure architecture and supporting hardware components for providing multi-user, multi-provider high speed, high capacity telecommunications desktop access and service throughout an office floor, a multi-floor building or across a multi-building campus. The system enables multiple services through an in-place, multiple tier network which allows a building or campus owner to provide individualized access and service to each tenant of the premises and also allows each tenant to configure its own internal network, all without reconfiguration or disruption of the overall network. Further, it allows for connection or disconnection of individual users as needed, again without reconfiguration, recabling ordisruption of the overall network. This is accomplished by a minimum usage and installation of cabling through the use of active and/or passive multiple tier distribution and segmentation devices, which can be placed at locations optimal for both user/tenant access and owner installation and maintenance of the network.

In particular, the present invention facilitates the use of high speed transmission in conjunction with active communications equipment so that high speed, high volume communications can occur throughout the system over a minimum of optical fiber carriers. A primary switching or routing device receives the various communications service provider inputs, such as data, telephone, or voice transmissions, and distributes those throughout the core of the building or campus through a primary cable network (ring) using high speed network protocols, advanced routing functions, self healing intelligence, protocol conversion and encapsulation and media conversion where necessary. A plurality of secondary switching or routing devices are positioned along the primary ring at locations selected for optimal intermediate distribution of services to different segments of the building or campus. These secondary devices also provide high speed network protocol processing, network management and advanced routing functions, and self healing intelligence to extract from or insert into the total network traffic those communications which are directed to or from users in each secondary device's own network (ring). Finally, located along each secondary ring are tertiary distribution devices each serving a single user or group of users, and which provide network access for services to or from each such user or user group. Each tertiary link extending from each tertiary device can be individually configured by its user or user group for optimal in-house routings for both external and internal telecommunications. At both the secondary and tertiary levels the routing devices have multiplexing capability, and are selective forthe individual packets of information being communicated over the high speed system, so that only the telecommunications information packets intended for users on or downstream from the specific ring are extracted from the system traffic and delivered to the appropriate end user. The remainder of the traffic continues on through the higher tier input ring and is selected at other respective devices.

A further critical aspect of the system is that at each tier or level, except for the final tier to the actual workstation, the telecommunications cable consists of a single pair (or dual pair for redundancy) of optical fibers or high speed copper wire, thus greatly simplifying the cabling requirements within the building or campus of buildings by eliminating extensive "home run" individual cabling of the prior art systems. Because each routing device is capable of identifying the addresses of each of the individual telecommunications which is within the stream of communications, and of extracting only those communications which are intended for workstation addresses within the path of that device, the principal and secondary rings can be broadband, high speed, high capacity single or dual fiber cable pairs over which the traffic to be routed travels. Only at the final tertiary link (i.e., the workgroup level) does there need to be separate copper or fiber cables to the individual addressed communications appliances. If redundancy or physical diversity is desired, such as for critical installations where loss of a ring cannot be tolerated, a second (back up) ring cable parallel to the main cable may be used.

The system can thus be briefly summarized as an infrastructure architecture and supporting physical components which are installed in a single office floor level or part thereof, into a building or into a campus of buildings in which high capacity, high speed fiber optic and copper cables are used for transmission from a service inlet of the building (usually located in the building's basement) or building campus to the individual buildings or floors of a building through a primary ring, and then on through intermediate secondary devices and rings to individual tertiary devices at an end user's location. These tertiary devices can be used by themselves or in conjunction with the secondary rings depending upon the tenant's size and needs to deliver addressed communications to the appropriate communications appliances at each desktop in a cluster of offices and/or cubicles occupied by that tenant. The system can utilized and transmit any high speed network protocol, including but not limited to synchronous optical network (SONET), GIGABIT ETHERNET, ATM, DWDM or the like. Self-healing and advanced routing function software at each device level insures that communications will be delivered to the appropriate locations and that there will be minimal corruption of any communications packet. An important feature of the present invention is that the system is sufficiently versatile to be designed to be integrated into a building or campus prior to arrival of tenants (e.g., into new construction), to be able to be retrofitted into such a building or campus, and to be able to be expanded freely within the building or campus, all without serious disruption of user's premises or operations. Cabling is minimized, long "home runs" of massive cable arrays are substantially reduced, the system is made simple to install, maintain and troubleshoot and becomes a permanent building amenity. Through the inclusion of the multiplexing and routing devices, the number of optical fibers needed for the various segments of the system are minimized, often to just one fiber per loop (or with two in parallel if redundancy and backup is required or desirable in the event a cable becomes damaged or malfunctions). Thus costs are saved and access to, separation from, and expansion or contraction of the system are all optimized.

The high speed delivery protocols and carriers useful with this invention can be wired or wireless. While for some types of transmission wireless does not currently have transmission speeds comparable to wired transmissions in a cost effective manner, it is anticipated that improvements in wireless technology will allow increase of this speed significantly, and therefore such increased capability wireless is to be considered to be within the scope of this invention. The system currently uses a mixture of optical fiber cable and copper wire, but it is anticipated and preferred that, based on future availability of fiber capability in all communications appliances, some embodiments of the system will be all-fiber and copper wire and copper-wire-related components will be eliminated. Therefore, in a principal embodiment, the invention is of an architecture and supporting enclosures which enable a method for the transmission and selective routing of addressed data and voice telecommunications within a complex of user workstations which comprises receiving an addressed telecommunication through at least one telecommunications input/output service at a primary receiving device at the building complex, an address of the addressed telecommunication identifying a particular communications appliance being within the complex; transmitting the addressed telecommunication from the primary receiving device into a primary cable carrier ring providing a primary path through the complex and disposed along which are a plurality of secondary routing devices each for routing addressed telecommunications into an associated secondary cable carrier ring, each secondary cable carrier ring providing an intermediate part from the primary cable carrier ring into a portion of the complex; examining the address of the addressed telecommunication with the secondary routing devices and routing the addressed telecommunication into a secondary cable carrier ring determined by the address; transmitting the addressed telecommunication from the secondary routing receiving device through the secondary cable carrier ring, along which are disposed a plurality of tertiary routing devices each for routing addressed telecommunications into an associated tertiary cable link connecting to a workstation having the address; and examining the address of the addressed telecommunication with the tertiary routing devices and routing the addressed telecommunication through the tertiary cable carrier ring to the workstation identified by the address.

In another principal embodiment the invention is of enclosures that contain and secure equipment for the transmission and selective routing of addressed data and voice telecommunications within a complex of user workstations which comprises a multi-tier telecommunications transmission network within the complex comprising a tier-related hierarchy of routing devices, each with an associated unique path within the complex, with a high level primary routing/switching device at the lowest tier of the network for connection with telecommunications services external to the complex and the user workstations at a higher tier of the network; an enclosure for a lower level switch/routerfortransmitting an addressed telecommunication within the network which originates from a higher tier source comprising a user workstation within the complex or from a lowest tier source comprising an external service; and such an enclosure for switching/routing device within the network between the higher tier source and the lowest tier source at which the telecommunication is received and examined to determine from an address in the telecommunication whether the telecommunication is to be routed into a higher or lower tier to continue to movef from the source toward the location of the address, the routing device altering the direction or tier of transmittal of the telecommunication only if the telecommunication is received for or from a path unique to that the routing device; supporting enclosures housing devices whereby incoming telecommunications are extracted from a stream of telecommunications within the network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation determined by the address and outgoing telecommunications are directed into that portion of the stream of telecommunications within the network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation or external source determined by the address.

Otherembodiments, features, components, steps and applications will be disclosed below and further such embodiments, features, components, steps and applications will be evident to those skilled in the art from those disclosures.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a schematic perspective view of a multi-floor building with the sides partially cut away.

Figure 2 is a schematic plan view of a floor of a building such as in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a schematic elevation view taken in cross section of a plurality of floors in a building such as in Figure 1 , showing the three-tier structure of the system of this invention.

Figures 4, 5 and 6 are respectively schematic diagrams of the primary, secondary and tertiary tiers of the system of this invention, illustrating their respective routing devices and cabling.

Figure 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating two embodiments of distribution within a tertiary tier of the system, with the embodiment of Figure 7A being wired and that of Figure 7B being wireless.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of typical cubicle clusters in an office building, illustrating an embodiment of routing of cables to the desktop communications appliances. Figure 9 is a perspective illustration of a typical embodiment of distribution device or module.

Figure 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating use of the system of this invention with a campus of buildings rather than the single building of Figure 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

AND PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention represents a major step forward which greatly facilitates broadband communications directly to and from the user's desktop. The present system is a multi-tier or multi-segment system which is integrated into an office floor, a building or campus of buildings and provides access and distribution for all network services such as voice and data from both internal and external sources, Internet access, access to local area and wide area networks, building services, and so forth. The system components allow for a high degree of flexibility for tenants of a building to access such telecommunications services according to their individual needs, for the building owner to be able to expand or contract usage based on tenants' needs and occupancy levels, for this building-wide infrastructure to become a permanent utility amenity of the building, and for the ability to reconfigure the system at any level with minimum disruption of service for the users.

The system is best understood by reference to the drawings. Figure 1 show the generalized view of a building 20 having multiple floors 22. Each floor 22 has a variety of different work areas such as clusters 24 of cubicles 26 and clusters of hard-wall offices 28. Tenants for buildings such as 20 may be full floor tenants whose offices occupy an entire floor 22 or several floors 22. Alternatively, as seen in Figure 2, a single floor 22 may be divided into a plurality of separate office spaces 27 for different tenants. The system of the present invention accommodates all such arrangements and numerous variations as well.

For brevity herein, the system will be described in terms of a multi-floor building 20 as in Figures 1 and 3, where any individual floor may be occupied fully by a single tenant, fully by multiple tenants or partially by tenants with some floor space being unoccupied.

Referring then to Figure 3, telecommunications lines 30 are service providers' incoming lines which provide a variety of commercial and/or private telecommunications services, including but not limited to data and voice transmission, Internet access and the like, to the building 20 for possible use by the building's tenants. Examples of such services include but are not limited to DS-1 , Frame Relay, OC-3 and XDSL. The specific types of services provided through lines 30 are not critical, since the system of the present invention will support transmission of all such services. What is important to the present invention is the ability of the system to provide a permanent infrastructure and supportive hardware to permit the efficient distribution of those services throughout the entire building so that all tenants will have access to the various services and can elect which services and they will subscribe to. In Figures 1 and 3 four incoming service lines 30 are shown but it will be understood that these are simply representative and that any number of services may be provided. Further, in these Figures the incoming service lines 30 are shown as land lines but as will be evident from Figure 4 one or more of the incoming services may be a wireless transmission service, in which case the receiving equipment described below will include appropriate antennas and related equipment for receiving such wireless signals.

The incoming services enterthe building 20 (usually at the basement level 32) where there is a communication entrance facility which houses at least one primary switching/routing device 34. The primary device 34 functions to receive and distribute all of the various incoming high-speed, high capacity services, and therefore will include network processing capability for systems including ATM, SONET, Gigabit Ethernet, DWDM, or any other high-performance protocol and to route those services into primary transmission ring 36. In addition to other network management functions, the primary device will include protocol conversion encapsulation functions and media conversion ability. It will also included "self healing" capabilities (usually software-based) to automatically bypass damaged network segments. Further, as noted above, for those outside services which are transmitted by wireless means (which may enter the building 20 via a rooftop facility), appropriate antennas and associated equipment will provide high-speed connections in the primary device 34. (As noted, there may be more than one system of this invention extending from the communication entry facility, and there will be a primary device 34 for each such system. Since all of the systems have the same architecture, only one such system is exemplified here for brevity.) Typical commercial products which can be used as primary devices 34 include "Unifier SMX Sonet Switch" available from Mayan

Networks of San Jose, CA and "DDM-2000" available from Lucent Technologies.

The incoming services received by primary device 34 are routed into primary ring 36 which is the major backbone traffic carrier reaching all floors 22 of building 20 (or in the case of a campus such as illustrated in Figure 10, all major buildings 20 of the campus). Initially therefore, all communications traffic entering the building passes through primary device 34 and into the primary ring 36 for routing to its ultimate destination.

Spaced at intervals along primary ring 36 are a plurality of secondary devices 38 shown in Figure 3 as disposed singly or in pairs on the various floors 22. The actual number of secondary devices 38 which are used and their specific positions will be determined by the layout building, the anticipated needs of the tenants and the relative complexity of the tenants' telecommunications networks and service requirements. Each of the secondary routing/switching devices 38 is generally similar but with lower capacity and network management capabilities than the primary device 34. Each secondary device 38 also incorporates a telecommunications message identification function such that as the various telecommunications signals traversing primary ring 36 reach each secondary device 38, that secondary device can select from the traffic stream those individual signals which are addressed to any of the tenants who are located along the secondary ring 40 associated with that secondary device 38. Typical commercial products which can be used as secondary devices 38 include "Series 7200," "Series 12000" and "LS 1010" devices available from Cisco Systems.

Each secondary ring 40 covers a single floor or part of a floor 22 (or in the campus setting of Figure 10 would cover a single building 20 or part of a building 20). Spaced along each secondary ring 40 are one or more tertiary devices 42. Each tertiary device 42 functions in the same manner as a secondary device 38 for selecting network traffic from secondary ring 40 which is addressed to a specific network appliance via a point-to-point link 44. In the present invention it is contemplated that essentially all of the tertiary point-to-point links 44 will be disposed in individual tenants' offices, cubicles or work areas. Further, it is anticipated that each of the tertiary final links to the appliance 44 will be configured to the individual tenant's particular requirements including the individual layout of the clusters 24 of cubicles 26 and the hard wall offices 28, as well as the various types of communications appliances used in the tenant's business. (In some of the Figures, such as Figures 2-6, the primary and secondary rings 36 and 40 are illustrated in their actual physical form as a loop of fiber. In others, such as Figures 7 and 10, for clarity the rings are shown with only a single line because of the scale of the Figure or the proximate location of the illustration of other components of the invention. It will be understood, however, that the actual configuration of each ring is as a loop, regardless of the depiction in any particular Figure.) Because of the individual requirements of various tenants and the link rather than ring nature of the tertiary extensions, there are a wide variety of different devices which can be used as tertiary devices. Among them are "Summit 48 Layer 2 Switch" available from Extreme Networks of Santa Clara, CA and the "Catalyst 2820" and "Catalyst 2900 Series" products from Cisco Systems.

Figure 3 also illustrates a desirable redundancy in the various cable rings by a parallel backup cable pair designated 36' accompanying the principal cable pair 36 in the primary ring and an equivalent parallel backup cable pair designated 40' accompanying the principal cable pair 40 in an exemplary secondary ring. It is desirable in the primary and all secondary rings to have such redundancy. This redundancy provides for alternative service should a principal cable pair fail, and is of particular importance in those installations and networks where loss of transmission would have severe or even irreparable effects. The primary and secondary devices (and tertiary devices, if desired) all have the capability of detecting a main cable ring failure and promptly rerouting all traffic in the opposite direction from the point of failure or to the backup cable pair so that service to the end users is unaffected while service on the main cable pair is restored. This redundancy also provides for ease of system maintenance or revision, since traffic can be routed without interruption over a backup cable pair while maintenance on or revision of the related main cable pair is conducted, with service restored to the main cable pair after completion of the maintenance or other work. It is therefore contemplated that in a typical building or campus setting primary device 34 and primary ring 36 will be permanently incorporated into the building through a central access core 46 which may be for instance the building core 48 which houses other common services such as elevators 50 and water, electricity and sewage lines. In the campus setting of Figure 10 the primary device may be within a building 20 as indicated at 34 or in a location remote from any of the buildings 20 as indicated at 34', in which case there will be an alternative routing 36' of the primary ring. Such alternate remote location 34' may, for instance, be a separate telecommunications center on the campus. Further, while most buildings 20 are likely to have sufficient bandwidth requirement to accommodate a full system starting with a primary device 34 and ring 36, in some cases in a campus setting a small building may not that large a bandwidth requirement and therefore can be set up as a secondary ring from a primary ring in another building. In this case the remote location 34' could be the primary system in the other building or in the separate telecommunications center.

The design of the building or the campus will determine the need for multiple primary and secondary tiers of infrastructure and the appropriate placement for the secondary devices 38 and layout of the secondary rings 40. In effect each secondary ring 40 is a smaller version of the primary ring 36 and is intended to provide the main conduit for transmission of the signals extracted by the respective secondary device 38 throughout the floor, portion of a floor or other area which that individual secondary ring 40 serves, as best illustrated in Figure 2. Those aspects of the primary and secondary tiers of the system are normally a function of the design of the building or the campus itself as determined by the system architecture designer, service provider and/or the building owner. Accommodation may be made in the building design for expansion of the primary ring 36 as indicated at 37, such as where there may be expansion of the building 20 as by addition of a new wing. There may also be accommodation in the building design for adding additional secondary devices 38 as needed, and for expansion, extension or addition of secondary rings 40.

It is in the positioning of the tertiary devices 42 and the ultimate designs of the various tertiary links 44 that the versatility of the present invention is most evident. Initially the system designer, service provider and/or the building owner will make a determination of where the various tertiary devices 42 should be located throughout the building based on their anticipation of the needs of the potential tenants. However, the system is sufficiently flexible and the attachment of new tertiary devices 42 so easy that the overall system can readily be modified by addition or relocation of such tertiary devices 42 as may be appropriate to provide optimal service to existing tenants or for provision of new or altered service when a tenant leaves and is replaced by another tenant. As best seen Figures 6, 7 and 8 each tertiary router/switch device 42 or 42' is capable of supporting a unique infrastructure path to various cubicles 26 (or offices 28) through cooperative distribution raceways 56 and 58 via short workgroup appliance cables 44 to the appliances such as computers 52 and telephones 54. To complete the tertiary links 44, distribution and cable management hardware such as that of the aforementioned "TOPRUNNER®" system is ideal. Each cubicle 26A, 26B, 26C, 26D in cluster 24 will have its own appliance cable(s) 44 as needed for its respective appliance(s) as indicated by cable 44A to cubicle 26A and cable 44B to cubicle 26B. It will be noted that cubicle 26C is shown as not having any appliance, but the raceways 56 and 58 are in place to accommodate future required cabling (designated 44'C) to that cubicle. It will also be noted that some of the tertiary links 44 may be wireless, as indicated in Figure 7 with signals 64E and 64F between the router/switch device 42' (with antenna 78) and the wireless appliances 52' and 54' in cubicles 26E and 26F (with antennas 77 and 79 respectively).

It will be evident that the various tenants can configure their own systems 44 as they wish, and that as shown in Figures 2 and 7 an individual tenant may have more than one tertiary device 42 and tertiary link 44 within the tenant's space. For instance an individual space 27 may be divided into segments 27a and 27b as indicated in the upper part of Figure 2, each with its own tertiary device 42 and link 44.

While the above discussion has focused on routing of incoming telecommunication from the outside sources 30 to an addressed workstation on the tertiary link, it will be evident that this architecture and its supporting physical components enable outgoing telecommunications from the workstations to occur in the identical manner. Further, the system is capable of supporting the routing of internal communications, including both those between workstations within a single ring and those between workstations on different rings.

A typical tertiary installation is illustrated in Figure 9, in the form of an individual cubicle 26 which is adjacent to a tertiary enclosure device 42 which serves the cluster 24 of cubicles to which the illustrated cubicle 26 belongs. In this case the tertiary device 42 is housed in a casing 70 having a door 72 with louvers 74 or some other means of ventilation, with the various devices 76 necessary to provide the routing and message selection functions arranged in any convenient manner within the housing 70. One of the devices within the housing 70 may be a wireless LAN hub 78 for sending wireless signals to the adjacent workgroup communications appliances; an external antenna (not shown) may alternatively be used. In the illustration of Figure 9 the incoming secondary ring 40 and the outgoing tertiary link 44 are both shown as coming down from an overhead position as from within a suspended ceiling (not shown). Alternatively the secondary ring can reach tertiary device 42 from below such as through an elevated floor (see Figure 8). It may also be convenient to place tertiary device 42 in an overhead or ceiling mounted housing such as is illustrated in U.S. Patents Nos. 5,842,213 and 5,911 ,661. Some or all of the secondary devices 38 may also be conveniently placed in such ceiling mounted housings.

The present invention thus permits the extension of high speed, high capacity data and communications transmission to the desktop through a multi- tier system which creates an architectural platform and supporting hardware components that facilitate the extraction and routing of individual telecommunications (or information packets) through unique optimal paths to or from the workplace desktop, mostly using optical fiber transmission cabling which carries a high speed, high capacity data transmission network such as SONET or others on top of which can sit a number of different carrier protocols such as Frame Relay, Ethernet, Asynchronous Transfer Mode and Internet Protocol. The nature and technology of SONET, Gigabit Ethernet and other various high speed (wired or wireless), high capacity networks are well known and do not need to be detailed here. What is important in this invention, however, is that it permits the data and communications transmission properties of such networks to be practically applied down to the desktop level. Current versions of SONET permit single (e.g. , OC-192) or multiple (e.g. , DWDM) wavelength data transmission at 10 Gb/sec using optical fiber over long distances. With the advances in optical components, the transmission speed of a SONET based service can be anticipated to increase (OC-768, DWDM, etc.). It is not required in this system that every backbone high speed connection over 40, 40' between two points in the system be made by physical "hardware" such as optical fiber cable or metal wire. It is contemplated that connections where appropriate can be by wireless electronic or light signals, such as by using radio frequency (RF) or infrared (IR) transmitters and receivers to form such wireless signal connections.

While the invention has been described above primarily with respect to cubicles, it can also be used as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 for hard-walled offices 28, where groups of closely adjacent offices 28 can be considered to be analogous to clusters 24 of cubicles 26. The system is intended to support the transmission of both data and voice, so that it is usable with all types of communication appliances. For the purposes of this invention, the term "communications appliances" shall mean not only devices directly involving communications of data and voice, such as computers, telephones, facsimile machines, network devices, document scanners and the like, but also all other types of electronic commercial, office and industrial equipment which act on or respond to data or voice input or create original or modified data or voice output, such as building control systems, photocopiers, photo finishing apparatus, printers, plotters, cash registers, bar code scanners and the like. It is also contemplated that numerous building services and sensor system other than communications devices, but which also involve transmission of data, video or voice, such as video surveillance, environmental controls and health, safety, fire and security detection and control devices and systems, can be interconnected with and operated over the network of this invention. Technical advantages include the ability to use the system in environments, (e.g. factory areas) where there is a high level of electromagnetic interference (EMI), since the principal cabling is optical fiber. Copper cables, which might be susceptible to such interference, are limited to the immediate desktops, where they are easily shielded. Alternatively, for many installations only the optical fiber needs to traverse the EMI areas, so that no interference will occur at all.

It will be evident from the above disclosure and the accompanying Figures that there are numerous additional embodiments of the present invention which, while not expressly illustrated and described herein, are clearly within the scope and spirit up of the basic concept of the invention. It will therefore be recognized that the invention, since it represents a basic concept, includes not only the illustrated embodiments but also those additional embodiments which utilize the same underlying concept of efficient, permanent, versatile and easily reconfigurable infrastructure to support delivery of high speed, high capacity data and communications transmission directly to the end users' desktops in a zone management environment as described in this specification. It is anticipated that those embodiments not expressly described here will include embodiments not yet designed, as well as ones which are not now available but which can be expected to become available as, for instance, network speeds increase beyond the current state of the art. WE CLAIM:

Claims

1. Apparatus to facilitate the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications within a complex of user workstations which comprises: a multi-tiertelecommunications transmission network within said complex comprising a tier-related hierarchy of routing devices, each with an associated unique path within said complex, and a transceiver disposed at a lowest tier of said network for connection with telecommunications services external to said complex and disposing said user workstations at a higher tier of said network; a plurality of said routing devices disposed at each tier of said network above the first for routing within said network addressed or circuit-based telecommunications which originates from a highertier source comprising a user workstation within said complex or from a lowest tier source comprising an external service; at each routing device at which said telecommunication is received, means for examining said telecommunication to determine from an address in said telecommunication whether said telecommunication is to be routed into a higher or lower tier to continue to movef from said source toward said location of said address; and at each said routing device means for altering the direction or tier of transmittal of said telecommunication only if said telecommunication is received for or from a path unique to that said routing device; whereby incoming telecommunications are extracted from a stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation determined by said address and outgoing telecommunications are directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation or external source determined by said address.

2. Apparatus as in Claim 1 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed and/or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications to an addressed workstation within a complex of user workstations which comprises a primary transceiver device for receiving an incoming addressed telecommunication through at least one telecommunications input/output service at said complex, an address of said addressed telecommunication being within said complex, and transmitting said addressed telecommunication from said primary transceiving device into a primary cable carrier ring providing a primary path through said complex; a plurality of secondary routing devices disposed along said primary path each for routing addressed telecommunications into an associated secondary cable carrier ring, each said secondary cable carrier ring providing an intermediate path from said primary cable carrier ring into a portion of said complex; each said secondary routing device comprising means for examining said address of said addressed telecommunication with and routing said addressed telecommunication into a secondary cable carrier ring determined by said address and transmitting said addressed telecommunication from said secondary routing receiving device through said secondary cable carrier ring, a plurality of tertiary routing devices disposed on each said secondary cable ring, each for examining said address of said addressed telecommunication and routing said addressed telecommunications into an associated tertiary link connecting to a workstation identified by said address; whereby said incoming telecommunication is extracted from said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to said specific workstation determined by said address.

///

3. Apparatus as in Claim 1 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications from a workstation within a complex of user workstations to a remote addressed location which comprises: a communications appliance at one said workstation for generating an outgoing telecommunication having an addressee delivery address; said workstation being disposed on a tertiary cable carrier link and transmitting said addressed telecommunication to a tertiary routing device associated with said tertiary cable carrier link; said tertiary routing device having means for examining said address and if said address identifies an addressee location external to said network, routing said addressed telecommunication into and through a secondary cable carrier ring and primary cable ring for delivery to an external service for transmittal to said external location determined by said address; whereby said outgoing communication is directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path from said workstation to said external source for transmittal as determined by said address

4. Apparatus as in Claim 1 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications from a first workstation within a complex of user workstations to a second workstation within said complex which comprises: a communication appliance at said first workstation disposed on a tertiary link for generating an outgoing telecommunication having an addressee delivery address identifying said second workstation and transmitting said addressed telecommunication to a tertiary routing device associated with said tertiary link; said tertiary routing device having means for examining said address of said addressed telecommunication to determine if said address identifies an addressee location internal to or external to tertiary links associated with said tertiary device, and, if said address identifies an addressee location internal to tertiary links associated with tertiary device, routing said addressed telecommunication to said workstation identified by said address, or, if said address identifies an addressee location external to said tertiary links associated with tertiary device, routing said addressed telecommunication from said tertiary device through a secondary cable carrier ring to a secondary routing device; said secondary routing device having means for examining said address of said addressed telecommunication to determine if said address identifies an addressee location internal to or external to said secondary cable carrier ring; and if said address identifies an addressee location internal to said secondary cable carrier ring, routing said addressed telecommunication through said secondary cable carrier ring to said workstation identified by said address; and if said address identifies an addressee location external to said secondary cable carrier ring, routing said addressed telecommunication from said secondary cable carrier ring through a primary cable carrier ring to another secondary routing device determined by said address for transmittal to said internal location determined by said address; whereby said internal communication is directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path from said workstation to said another workstation as determined by said address.

5. Apparatus as in any of Claims 1 through 4 comprising disposing as said multi-tier hierarchy a primary cable carrier ring, a plurality of secondary cable carrier rings each dispersing therefrom through a secondary routing device and a plurality of tertiary cable carrier links each dispersing from a secondary cable carrier ring through a tertiary routing device, and wherein at least said primary and said secondary rings comprise broadband high speed high capacity carriers in single cable pair configuration.

6. Apparatus as in any of Claims 1 through 5 wherein said tertiary link is routed through raceways integrated with cubicles and an associated tertiary device is disposed proximate to said raceways.

7. A method for facilitation of the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications within a complex of user workstations which comprises: providing a multi-tier telecommunications transmission network within said complex comprising a tier-related hierarchy of routing devices, each with an associated unique path within said complex, and a transceiver disposed at a lowest tier of said network for connection with telecommunications services external to said complex and providing said user workstations at a higher tier of said network; providing a plurality of said routing devices at each tier of said network above the first for routing within said network addressed or circuit-based telecommunications which originates from a highertier source comprising a user workstation within said complex or from a lowest tier source comprising an external service; at each routing device at which said telecommunication is received, examining said telecommunication to determine from an address in said telecommunication whether said telecommunication is to be routed into a higher or lower tier to continue to movef from said source toward said location of said address; and at each said routing device altering the direction or tier of transmittal of said telecommunication only if said telecommunication is received for or from a path unique to that said routing device; whereby incoming telecommunications are extracted from a stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation determined by said address and outgoing telecommunications are directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to a specific workstation or external source determined by said address.

8. A method as in Claim 7 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed and/or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications to an addressed workstation within a complex of user workstations which comprises providing a primary transceiver device for receiving an incoming addressed telecommunication through at least one telecommunications input/output service at said complex, an address of said addressed telecommunication being within said complex, and transmitting said addressed telecommunication from said primary transceiving device into a primary cable carrier ring providing a primary path through said complex; disposing a plurality of secondary routing devices along said primary path each for routing addressed telecommunications into an associated secondary cable carrier ring, each said secondary cable carrier ring providing an intermediate path from said primary cable carrier ring into a portion of said complex; at each said secondary routing device examining said address of said addressed telecommunication with and routing said addressed telecommunication into a secondary cable carrier ring determined by said address and transmitting said addressed telecommunication from said secondary routing receiving device through said secondary cable carrier ring, disposing a plurality of tertiary routing devices on each said secondary cable ring, each for examining said address of said addressed telecommunication and routing said addressed telecommunications into an associated tertiary link connecting to a workstation identified by said address; whereby said incoming telecommunication is extracted from said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path to said specific workstation determined by said address.

9. A method as in Claim 7 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications from a workstation within a complex of user workstations to a remote addressed location which comprises: providing a communications appliance at one said workstation for generating an outgoing telecommunication having an addressee delivery address, said workstation being disposed on a tertiary cable carrier link and transmitting said addressed telecommunication to a tertiary routing device associated with said tertiary cable carrier link; at said tertiary routing device examining said address and if said address identifies an addressee location external to said network, routing said addressed telecommunication into and through a secondary cable carrier ring and primary cable ring for delivery to an external service for transmittal to said external location determined by said address; whereby said outgoing communication is directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path from said workstation to said external source for transmittal as determined by said address

10. A method as in Claim 7 for the transmission and selective routing of addressed or circuit-based data and voice telecommunications from a first workstation within a complex of user workstations to a second workstation within said complex which comprises: providing a communication appliance at said first workstation disposed on a tertiary link for generating an outgoing telecommunication having an addressee delivery address identifying said second workstation and transmitting said addressed telecommunication to a tertiary routing device associated with said tertiary link; at said tertiary routing device examining said address of said addressed telecommunication to determine if said address identifies an addressee location internal to or external to tertiary links associated with said tertiary device, and, if said address identifies an addressee location internal to tertiary links associated with tertiary device, routing said addressed telecommunication to said workstation identified by said address, or, if said address identifies an addressee location external to said tertiary links associated with tertiary device, routing said addressed telecommunication from said tertiary device through a secondary cable carrier ring to a secondary routing device; at said secondary routing device examining said address of said addressed telecommunication to determine if said address identifies an addressee location internal to or external to said secondary cable carrier ring; and if said address identifies an addressee location internal to said secondary cable carrier ring, routing said addressed telecommunication through said secondary cable carrier ring to said workstation identified by said address; and if said address identifies an addressee location external to said secondary cable carrier ring, routing said addressed telecommunication from said secondary cable carrier ring through a primary cable carrier ring to another secondary routing device determined by said address for transmittal to said internal location determined by said address; whereby said internal communication is directed into that portion of said stream of telecommunications within said network only for delivery through such unique path from said workstation to said another workstation as determined by said address.

11. A method as in any of Claims 7 through 10 comprising disposing as said multi-tier hierarchy a primary cable carrier ring, a plurality of secondary cable carrier rings each dispersing therefrom through a secondary routing device and a plurality of tertiary cable carrier links each dispersing from a secondary cable carrier ring through a tertiary routing device, and wherein at least said primary and said secondary rings comprise broadband high speed high capacity carriers in single cable pair configuration.

12. A method as in any of Claims 7-11 further comprising routing said tertiary link through raceways integrated with cubicles and disposing an associated tertiary device proximate to said raceways.