INTEGRATED VOICE/DATA/CONTROL SWITCHING SYSTEM

A communications switching system is provided for transferring information between a plurality of node information highways (66,68) and between node information highways (66,68) and station ports (284,286), the system (221) comprising a plurality of switches (243) each switch having a station to highway section (244) and a highway to station section (246), each section (244,246) being in electrical communication with a station port (284,286) and with a plurality of node information highways (272,274). The station to highway section (244) and highway to station section (246) are each independently and dynamically configurable to communicate a selected bandwidth of information between the station ports and a selected node information highway. Each section (244,246) further being operative to serially integrate control information into the data stream communicated to the station port, and to derive control information from the serial signal stream received from the station port. Thus, connectivity requirements between the station device and the network signal stream are simplified and greater utilization of the network signal stream is possible.