A loop carrier system includes a home local area network having plural telephone modules and a hub coupled to in-home telephone wiring. The telephone modules and the hub communicate voice signals over the in-home wiring in a dedicated frequency band above baseband POTS. The hub converts between voice signals and voice packets and is connected to a network access device for transferring the voice packets from the home local area network to a telecommunications network which routes the voice packets to a gateway. The gateway converts between the voice packets and a circuit format compatible with a local digital voice switch. The gateway includes an ATM switch and a call processing adjunct coupled to the ATM switch. The call processing adjunct controls the conversion between voice packets and the circuit format at the ATM switch. The call processing adjunct communicates with the home local area network using a first signaling protocol such as Media Gateway Control Protocol, Session Initiation Protocol or H.323, and with the local digital switch using a second signaling protocol such as GR-303 for controlling call processing in the communication system.

 
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> Communications system and method with non-blocking shared interface

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