Method and apparatus for achieving fabric independent routing technique
 The routing of calls in a telecommunications switching system (12.sub.1, 12.sub.2) comprised of one or more fabrics (22.sub.1, 22.sub.2, 22.sub.3) controlled by corresponding fabric controllers (26.sub.1,26.sub.2 and 26.sub.3, respectively) is carried out by a routing processor (28) independent of the fabrics. The routing processor actually selects the route for each call by specifying a channel to a neighboring switching system to carry the call. Further, the routing processor has the capability to respond to queries from other switching systems regarding trunk group status and traffic load to enable the processor to assist the routing processor of the other switching system to make routing decisions. By implementing fabric independent routing, routing processing is re-used for new fabric capacity, and is readily extended to accommodate new service types, such as bursty data services. Fabric independent routing achieves lower development cost by avoiding re-development of routing functions on new fabric controllers, as they are added, and the addition of new routing features is made on a single routing processor function versus multiple fabric controllers. Fabric independent routing allows routing processing to be implemented on processors with essentially unlimited real-time and memory resources by riding the processor technology curve, and achieves performance advantages such as reduced call set up delay and improved overall switch reliability. 
AT&T Corp
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Gerald Richard Saul Daniel Jiayu
Ash Fishman Chen