Digital Loop Carrier (DLC) Digital loop carrier (DLC) is a high efficiency digital transmission system that uses

existing distribution cabling systems to transfer digital information between the telephone system (central office) and a telephone or other communication device. There are two types of DLC: universal digital loop carrier (UDLC) and integrated digital loop carrier (IDLC). The UDLC is a system that consists of RDTs and central office terminals (COTs). Optical systems such as synchronous optical network (SONET) can transfer signals transparently through the COT to the RDT. The RDT provides an interface between the digital transmission line (e.g., DS1) and the customers access line. The RDT can dynamically assign time slots from the communication line to customer access lines. Integrated digital loop carrier (IDLC) is a digital line interface that has been re-engineered to integrate within a switch (usually as card) and shares the internal bus structure of the switch. This function (or card) is called an integrated digital terminal (IDT). Using the IDT, the switch can directly communicate with a remote digital terminal (RDT) that is closer to the end customer using an efficient multi-channel communication line. The RDT provides an interface between the highspeed digital transmission line (e.g., DS1) and the customers access line. The RDT can dynamically assign time slots from the communication line to customer access lines. Because customer access lines are not used at the same time, an RDT that interfaces to a DS1 line (24 channels) usually provides service to 96 customer access lines. The key advantages to DLC carrier systems are the cost effective transmission and the ability to rapidly add, delete, or change customer services without having to dispatch an installation technician. The DLC system offers improved efficiency through the use of existing distribution cabling systems. DLC systems also offer the ability to extend the range of access lines from the central office to the end customer as the RDT effectively operates as a repeater. An RDT is divided into three major parts: digital transmission facility interface, common system interface, and line interface. The digital transmission interface terminates the high-speed line and coordinates the signaling. The common system interface performs the multiplexing/de-multiplexing, signaling, insertion, and extraction. The line interface contains digital to analog conversions (if the access line is analog) or digital formatting (if the line is digital). DLC initially allowed 40 analog telephone connections to be extended to the remote neighborhoods using a device called an SLC-40. Later an SLC-96 (known as a slick 96) was put into service that allowed 96 voice grade analog circuits to be extended from the CO on just ten (10) pairs thus reclaiming 86 pairs per installation. Still in use the SLC-96 has allowed the LECs to conserve much of their installed outside copper infrastructure. Unfortunately, DLC systems are not transparent to other systems such as DSL systems. Although it is possible to install digital subscriber line network equipment (co-locate) along with RDT equipment, the RDT equipment housings and power supplies were not originally designed to hold additional equipment. Figure 1 shows the deployment of an integrated digital loop carrier (IDLC) application in a local telephone distribution network. This diagram shows that a switching system has been upgraded to include an IDT and an RDT has been located close to a residential neighborhood. The IDT dynamically connects access lines (actually digital time slots) in the switching system to time slots on the communications line between the IDT and RDT. The RDT can connect to up to 96 residential telephone lines. When a call is to be originated, the RDT connects (locally switches) the residential line to one of the available channels on the DS1 interconnection line. The IDT communicates with the RDT using the GR-303 standard.

Telephone exchange
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2010)

A telephone operator manually connecting calls with cord pairs at a telephone switchboard.

A telephone exchange or telephone switch is a telecommunications system used in large enterprises or in the public switched telephone network. An exchange consists of electronic components and in older system also human operators that interconnect (switch) telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls between subscribers. A telephone exchange is located in a central office (CO) which is the physical building used to house the inside plant equipment including telephone switches. An exchange area is the geographic region served by a particular switch, but is typically known as a rate center or wire centerin the US telecommunications industry. This establishes local calling areas, in which it is not necessary to pay a long-distancerate, but they typically cover more than one rate center even in micropolitan and small metropolitan areas. The exchange code orcentral office code, or prefix, is the set of the initial digits of the subscriber number. Historically, the prefix had one, two, or three digits, the latter being the firmly established dial plan since the mid-1900s. Rate centers for mobile phones typically cover a much larger area than landline rate centers in urban and suburban areas, and often include dozens of codes. In the United States, local exchange areas together make up a legal entity called local access and transport areas (LATA) under the Modification of Final Judgment (MFJ).
Contents
[hide]

1 Historic perspective

1.1 Number plan details

2 Technologies

o o

2.1 Manual service exchanges 2.2 Early automatic exchanges

o o

2.2.1 Electromechanical signaling 2.2.2 Sounds 2.2.3 Maintenance tasks 2.2.4 Electronic switches

2.3 Digital switches 2.4 The switch's place in the system

3 Switch design 4 Switch control algorithms

o o

4.1 Fully connected mesh network 4.2 Clos's nonblocking switch algorithm

5 Fault tolerance 6 Internet exchanges 7 See also 8 Notes 9 External links

[edit]Historic

perspective

Tivadar Pusks, inventor of the telephone exchange.

Exchange in Miskolc, Hungary

In the era of the electrical telegraph, post offices, railway stations, the more important governmental centers (ministries), stock exchanges, very few nationally distributed newspapers, the largest internationally important corporations and wealthy individuals were the principle users of such telegraphs.[1] Despite the fact that telephone devices existed before the invention of the telephone exchange, their success and economical operation would have been impossible on the same schema and structure of the contemporary telegraph, as prior to the invention of the telephone exchange switchboard, early telephones were hardwired to and communicated with only a single other telephone (such as from an individual's home to the person's business). A telephone exchange is a telephone system located at service centers (central offices) responsible for a small geographic area that provided the switching or interconnection of two or more individual subscriber lines for calls made between them, rather than requiring direct lines between subscriber stations. This made it possible for subscribers to call each other at homes, businesses, or public spaces. These made telephony an available and comfortable communication tool for everyday use, and it gave the impetus for the creation of a whole new industrial sector. One of the first people to build a telephone exchange was Hungarian Tivadar Pusks in 1877 while he was working for Thomas Edison.[2][3][4][5] The first experimental telephone exchange was based on the ideas of Pusks, and it was built by the Bell Telephone Company in Boston in 1877. [6] George W. Coy designed and built the first commercial telephone exchange which opened in New Haven, Connecticut in January, 1878. The switchboard was built from "carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire" and could handle two simultaneous conversations.[7] Charles Glidden is also credited with establishing an exchange in Lowell, MA. with 50 subscribers in 1878. In Europe the earliest telephone exchanges were based in London and Manchester, both of which opened under Bell patents in 1879.[8] The first in Germany was opened in Berlin 1881.[9] Belgium had its first International Bell exchange (in Antwerp) a year later.

Later exchanges consisted of one to several hundred plug boards staffed by telephone operators. Each operator sat in front of a vertical panel containing banks of -inch tip-ring-sleeve (3-conductor) jacks, each of which was the local termination of asubscriber's telephone line. In front of the jack panel lay a horizontal panel containing two rows of patch cords, each pair connected to a cord circuit. When a calling party lifted the receiver, a signal lamp near the jack would light.[10] The operator would plug one of the cords (the "answering cord") into the subscriber's jack and switch her headset into the circuit to ask, "Number, please?" Depending upon the answer, the operator might plug the other cord of the pair (the "ringing cord") into the called party's local jack and start the ringing cycle, or plug into a trunk circuit to start what might be a long distance call handled by subsequent operators in another bank of boards or in another building miles away. In 1918, the average time to complete the connection for a longdistance call was 15 minutes.[10] In the ringdown method, the originating operator called another intermediate operator who would call the called subscriber, or passed it on to another intermediate operator.[11] This chain of intermediate operators could complete the call only if intermediate trunk lines were available between all the centers at the same time. In 1943 when military calls had priority, a cross-country US call might take as long as 2 hours to request and schedule in cities that used manual switchboards for toll calls. On March 10, 1891, Almon Brown Strowger, an undertaker in Kansas City, Missouri, patented the stepping switch, a device which led to the automation of telephone circuit switching. While there were many extensions and adaptations of this initial patent, the one best known consists of 10 levels or banks, each having 10 contacts arranged in a semicircle. When used with a rotary telephone dial, each pair of digits caused the shaft of the central contact "hand" of the stepping switch to first step (ratchet) up one level for each pulse in the first digit and then to swing horizontally in a contact row with one small rotation for each pulse in the next digit. Later stepping switches were arranged in banks, the first stage of which was a linefinder. If one of up to a hundred subscriber lines had the receiver lifted "off hook", a linefinder connected the subscriber's line to a free first selector, which returned the subscriber a dial tone to show that it was ready to receive dialed digits. The subscriber's dial pulsed at about 10 pulses per second, although the speed depended on the standard of the particular telephone administration. Exchanges based on the Strowger switch were eventually challenged by other exchange types and later by crossbar technology. These exchange designs promised faster switching and would accept pulses faster than the Strowger's typical 10 ppstypically about 20 pps. At a later date many also accepted DTMF "touch tones" or other tone signaling systems. A transitional technology (from pulse to DTMF) had DTMF link finders which converted DTMF to pulse, to feed to older Strowger, panel, or crossbar switches. This technology was used as late as mid 2002.

[edit]Number

plan details

Further information: Telephone number

[edit]Technologies

This article will use the following terms:

manual service for a condition where a human operator routes calls inside an exchange and a dial is not used

dial service for an exchange where calls are routed by a switch interpreting dialed digits telephone exchange for the building housing the switching equipment telephone switch for the switching equipment concentrator for a device that concentrates traffic, be it remote or co-located with the switch off-hook for a tip condition or to describe a circuit that is in use (i.e., when a phone call is in progress) on-hook for an idle circuit (i.e., no phone call is in progress) wire center for the area served by a particular switch or central office

Many of the terms in this article have conflicting UK and US usages.

central office originally referred to switching equipment and its operators. Now it is used generally for the building housing switching and related inside plant equipment.

telephone exchange means an exchange building in the UK, and is also the UK name for a telephone switch, and also has a legal meaning in U.S. telecoms.

telephone switch is the U.S. term, but is in increasing use in technical UK telecoms usage, to make the CO/switch/concentrator distinction clear.

[edit]Manual

service exchanges

1924 PBX switchboard

With manual service, the customer lifts the receiver off-hook and asks the operator to connect the call to a requested number. Provided that the number is in the same central office, the operator connects the call by plugging into the jack on the switchboard corresponding to the called customer's line. If the call is to another central office, the operator plugs into the trunk for the other office and asks the operator answering (known as the "inward" operator) to connect the call. Most urban exchanges provided common-battery service, meaning that the central office provided power for the telephone circuits. In common-battery systems, the pair of wires from a subscriber's telephone to the exchange carry 48V (nominal) DC potential from the telephone company end across the conductors. The telephone presents an open circuit when it is on-hook or idle.[12] When a subscriber's phone is off-hook, it connects an electrical resistor across the line which causes current to flow through the telephone and wires to the central office. In a manually operated switchboard, this current flowed through a relay coil actuating a buzzer and lamp on the operator's switchboard. The buzzer and lamp would tell an operator the subscriber's phone was off-hook, requesting service.[12] In the largest U.S. cities, it took many years to convert every office to automatic equipment, such as panel switches. During this transition period, it was possible to dial a manual number and be connected without requesting an operator's assistance. This was because the policy of the Bell System was that customers should not need to know whether they were calling a manual or automated office.

If a subscriber dialed a manual number, an inward operator would answer the call, see the called number on a display device, and manually connect the call. For instance, if a customer calling from TAylor 4725 dialed a manual number, ADams 1233, the call would go through, from the subscriber's perspective, exactly as a call to LEnnox 5813, in an automated exchange. In contrast to the common-battery system, smaller towns with manual operator service often had magneto, or crank, phones. Using a magneto phone, the subscriber turned a crank to generate ringing current, to gain the operator's attention. The switchboard would respond by dropping a metal tab above the subscriber's line jack and sounding a buzzer. Dry cell batteries (normally two large No. 6 cells) in the subscriber's telephone provided the DC power for conversation. Magneto systems were in use in one American small town, Bryant Pond, Woodstock, Maine as late as 1983. In general, this type of system had a poorer call quality compared to common-battery systems. Many small town magneto systems featured party lines, anywhere from two to ten or more subscribers sharing a single line. When calling a party, the operator would use a distinctive ringing signal sequence, such as two long rings followed by one short. Everyone on the line could hear the rings, and of course could pick up and listen in if they wanted. On rural lines which were not connected to a central office (thus not connected to the outside world), subscribers would crank the correct sequence of rings to reach their party.
[edit]Early

automatic exchanges

A rural telephone exchange building in Australia.

Automatic exchanges, or dial service, came into existence in the early 1900s. Their purpose was to eliminate the need for human telephone operators. Before the exchanges became automated, operators had to complete the connections required for atelephone call. Almost everywhere, operators have been replaced by computerized exchanges. A telephone switch is the brains of an automatic exchange. It is a device for routing calls from one telephone to another, generally as part of the public switched telephone network.

The local exchange automatically senses an off hook (tip) telephone condition, provides dial tone to that phone, receives the pulses or DTMF tones generated by the phone, and then completes a connection to the called phone within the same exchange or to another distant exchange. The exchange then maintains the connection until a party hangs up, and the connection is disconnected. This tracking of a connection's status is called supervision. Additional features, such as billing equipment, may also be incorporated into the exchange. In Bell System dial service, a feature called automatic number identification (ANI) was implemented. ANI allowed services like automated billing, toll-free 800-numbers, and 9-1-1 service. In manual service, the operator knows where a call is originating by the light on the switchboard's jack field. In early dial service, ANI did not exist. Long distance calls would go to an operator queue and the operator would ask the calling party's number, then write it on a paper toll ticket. See also Automatic Message Accounting. Early exchanges used motors, shaft drives, rotating switches and relays. In a sense, switches were relay-logic computers. Some types of automatic exchanges were Strowger(also known as Step-By-Step), All Relay, XY, Panel and crossbar. These are referred to collectively as electromechanical switches.
[edit]Electromechanical signaling

Main article: Signalling (telecommunications) Circuits connecting two switches are called trunks. Before Signalling System 7, Bell System electromechanical switches in the United States communicated with one another over trunks using a variety of DC voltages and signaling tones. It would be rare to see any of these in use today. Some signalling communicated dialed digits. An early form called Panel Call Indicator Pulsing used quaternary pulses to set up calls between a panel switch and a manual switchboard. Probably the most common form of communicating dialed digits between electromechanical switches was sending dial pulses, equivalent to a rotary dial's pulsing, but sent over trunk circuits between switches. In Bell System trunks, it was common to use 20 pulse-per-second between crossbar switches and crossbar tandems. This was twice the rate of Western Electric/Bell System telephone dials. Using the faster pulsing rate made trunk utilization more efficient because the switch spent half as long listening to digits. DTMF was not used for trunk signaling. Multi-frequency (MF) was the last of the pre-digital methods. It used a different set of tones sent in pairs like DTMF. Dialing was preceded by a special keypulse (KP) signal and followed by a start (ST). Variations of the Bell System MF tone scheme became a CCITT standard. Similar schemes were used in the Americas and in some European countries including Spain. Digit strings between switches were often abbreviated to further improve utilization.

For example, one switch might send only the last four or five digits of a telephone number. In one case, seven digit numbers were preceded by a digit 1 or 2 to differentiate between two area codes or office codes, (a twodigit-per-call savings). This improved revenue per trunk and reduced the number of digit receivers needed in a switch. Every task in electromechanical switches was done in big metallic pieces of hardware. Every fractional second cut off of call set up time meant fewer racks of equipment to handle call traffic. Examples of signals communicating supervision or call progress include E and M signaling, SF signaling, and robbed-bit signaling. In physical (not carrier) E and M trunk circuits, trunks were four wire. Fifty trunks would require a hundred pair cable between switches, for example. Conductors in one common circuit configuration were named tip, ring, ear (E) and mouth (M). In two-way trunks with E and M signaling, a handshake took place to prevent both switches from colliding by dialing calls on the same trunk at the same time. By changing the state of these leads from ground to -48 volts, the switches stepped through a handshake protocol. Using DC voltage changes, the local switch would send a signal to get ready for a call and the remote switch would reply with an acknowledgment to go ahead with dial pulsing. This was done with relay logic and discrete electronics. These voltage changes on the trunk circuit would cause pops or clicks that were audible to the subscriber as the electrical handshaking stepped through its protocol. Another handshake, to start timing for billing purposes, caused a second set of clunks when the called party answered. A second common form of signaling for supervision was called single-frequency or SF signaling. The most common form of this used a steady 2,600 Hz tone to identify a trunk as idle. Trunk circuitry hearing a 2,600 Hz tone for a certain duration would go idle. (The duration requirement reduced falsing). Some systems used tone frequencies over 3,000 Hz, particularly on SSB frequency division multiplex microwave radio relays. On T-carrier digital transmission systems, bits within the T-1 data stream were used to transmit supervision. By careful design, the appropriated bits did not change voice quality appreciably. Robbed bits were translated to changes in contact states (opens and closures) by electronics in the channel bank hardware. This allowed direct current E and M signaling, or dial pulses, to be sent between electromechanical switches over a digital carrier which did not have DC continuity.
[edit]Sounds
Step-by-step call

MENU 0:00 Subscribers hear a differentsounding dialtone in a step-bystep call.

Problems listening to this file? See media help.

A characteristic of electromechanical switching equipment is that the maintenance staff could hear the mechanical clattering of Strowgers, panel switches or crossbar relays. Most Bell System central offices were housed in reinforced concrete buildings with concrete ceilings and floors. In rural areas, some smaller switching facilities, such as Community Dial Offices (CDOs), were sometimes housed in prefabricated metal buildings. These facilities almost always had concrete floors. The hard surfaces reflected sounds. During heavy use periods, it could be difficult to converse in a central office switch room due to the clatter of calls being processed in a large switch. For example, on Mother's Day in the US, or on a Friday evening around 5pm, the metallic rattling could make raised voices necessary. For wire spring relay markers these noises resembled hail falling on a metallic roof. On a pre-dawn Sunday morning, call processing might slow to the extent that one might be able to hear individual calls being dialed and set up. There were also noises from whining power inverters and whirring ringing generators. Some systems had a continual, rhythmic "clack-clack-clack" from wire spring relays that made reorder (120 ipm) and busy (60 ipm) signals. In Bell System installations, there were typically alarm bells, gongs, or chimes. These would annunciate alarms calling attention to a failed switch element. Another noisemaker: a trouble reporting card system was connected to switch common control elements. These trouble reporting systems would puncture cardboard cards with a code that logged the nature of a failure. Remreed technology in Stored Program Control exchanges finally quieted the environment.
[edit]Maintenance tasks

The maintenance of electromechanical systems was partly DC electricity and partly mechanical adjustments. Unlike modern switches, a circuit connecting a dialed call through an electromechanical switch actually had DC continuity. The talking path was a physical, metallic one. In all systems, subscribers were not supposed to notice changes in quality of service because of failures or maintenance work. A variety of tools referred to as make-busys were plugged into electromechanical switch elements during repairs or failures. A make-busy would identify the part being worked on as in-use, causing the

switching logic to route around it. A similar tool was called a TD tool. Subscribers who got behind in payments would have their service temporarily denied (TDed). This was effected by plugging a tool into the subscriber's office equipment (Crossbar) or line group (step). The subscriber could receive calls but could not dial out. Strowger-based, step-by-step offices in the Bell System were under continual maintenance. They required constant cleaning. Indicator lights on equipment bays in step offices alerted staff to conditions such as blown fuses (usually white lamps) or a permanent signal (stuck off-hook condition, usually green indicators.) Step offices were more susceptible to single-point failures than newer technologies. Crossbar offices used more shared, common control circuits. For example, a digit receiver (part of an element called an Originating Register) would be connected to a call just long enough to collect the subscriber's dialed digits. Crossbar architecture was more flexible than step offices. Later crossbar systems had punch-card-based trouble reporting systems. By the 1970s, automatic number identification had been retrofitted to nearly all stepby-step and crossbar switches in the Bell System.
[edit]Electronic switches

The first Electronic Switching Systems were not entirely digital. The Western Electric 1ESS switch had reed relay metallic paths which were stored-program-controlled. Equipment testing, changes to phone numbers, circuit lockouts and similar tasks were accomplished by typing on a terminal. Northern Telecom SP1, Ericsson AKE, Philips PRX/A, ITT Metaconta, British Telecom TXE series and several other designs were similar. These systems could use the old electromechanical signaling methods inherited from crossbar and step-bystep switches. They also introduced a new form of data communications: two 1ESS exchanges could communicate with one another using a data link called Common Channel Interoffice Signaling, (CCIS). This data link was based on CCITT 6, a predecessor to SS7.
[edit]Digital

switches

A typical satellite PBX with front cover removed.

Digital switches work by connecting two or more digital circuits together, according to a dialed telephone number. Calls are set up between switches using the Signalling System 7 protocol, or one of its variants. In U.S. and military telecommunication, a digital switch is a switch that performs time division switching of digitized signals.[13] This was first done in a few small and little used systems. The first product using a digital switch system was made by Amtelco. Prominent examples include ITT System 12, Nortel DMS-100, Lucent 5ESS switch, Siemens EWSD and Ericsson AXE telephone exchange. With few exceptions, such as PAM switches,[14] most switches built since the 1980s are digital. This article describes digital switches, including algorithms and equipment.

A digital exchange (Nortel DMS-100) used by an operator to offer local and long distance services in France. Each switch typically serves 10,000100,000+ subscribers depending on the geographic area

Digital switches encode the speech going on, in 8000 time slices per second. At each time slice, a digital PCM representation of the tone is made. The digits are then sent to the receiving end of the line, where the reverse process occurs, to produce the sound for the receiving phone. In other words, when someone uses a telephone, the speaker's voice is "encoded" then reconstructed for the person on the other end. The speaker's voice is delayed in the process by a small fraction of one second it is not "live", it is reconstructed delayed only minutely. (See below for more info.) Individual local loop telephone lines are connected to a remote concentrator. In many cases, the concentrator is co-located in the same building as the switch. The interface between remote concentrators and telephone switches has been standardised by ETSIas the V5 protocol. Concentrators are used because most telephones are idle most of the day, hence the traffic from hundreds or thousands of them may be concentrated into only tens or hundreds of shared connections. Some telephone switches do not have concentrators directly connected to them, but rather are used to connect calls between other telephone switches. These complex machines (or a series of them) in a central exchange building are referred to as "carrier-level" switches or tandem switches.

Some telephone exchange buildings in small towns now house only remote or satellite switches, and are homed upon a "parent" switch, usually several kilometres away. The remote switch is dependent on the parent switch for routing and number plan information. Unlike a digital loop carrier, a remote switch can route calls between local phones itself, without using trunks to the parent switch. Telephone switches are usually owned and operated by a telephone service provider or carrier and located in their premises, but sometimes individual businesses or private commercial buildings will house their own switch, called a PBX, or Private branch exchange.

Map of the Wire Center locations in the US

Map of the Central Office locations in the US

[edit]The

switch's place in the system

Telephone switches are a small part of a large network. The majority of work and expense of the phone system is the wiring outside the central office, or the outside plant. In the middle 20th century, each subscriber telephone number required an individual pair of wires from the switch to the subscriber's phone. A typical central office may have tens-of-thousands of pairs of wires that appear on terminal blocks called the main distribution frame or MDF. A component of the MDF is protection: fuses or other devices that protect the switch from lightning, shorts with electric power lines, or other foreign voltages. In a typical telephone company, a large database tracks information about each subscriber pair and the status of each jumper. Before computerization of Bell System records in the 1980s, this information was handwritten in pencil in accounting ledger books. To reduce the expense of outside plant, some companies use "pair gain" devices to provide telephone service to subscribers. These devices are used to provide service where existing copper facilities have been exhausted or by siting in a neighborhood, can reduce the length of copper pairs, enabling digital services such as ISDN or DSL. Pair gain or digital loop carriers (DLCs) are located outside the central office, usually in a large neighborhood distant from the CO. DLCs are often referred to as Subscriber Loop Carriers (SLCs), after a Lucent proprietary product. DLCs can be configured as universal (UDLCs) or integrated (IDLCs). Universal DLCs have two terminals, a central office terminal (COT) and a remote terminal (RT), that function similarly. Both terminals interface with analog signals, convert to digital signals, and transport to the other side where the reverse is performed. Sometimes, the transport is handled by separate equipment. In an Integrated DLC, the COT is eliminated. Instead, the RT is connected digitally to equipment in the telephone switch. This reduces the total amount of equipment required. Switches are used in both local central offices and in long distance centers. There are two major types in the Public switched telephone network (PSTN): 1. Class 4 telephone switches designed for toll or switch-to-switch connections. 2. Class 5 telephone switches or subscriber switches, which manage connections from subscriber telephones. Since the 1990s, hybrid Class 4/5 switching systems that serve both functions have become common. Another element of the telephone network is time and timing. Switching, transmission and billing equipment may be slaved to very high accuracy 10 MHz standards which synchronize time events to very close intervals. Time-standards equipment may include Rubidium- or Caesium-based standards and a Global Positioning System receiver.

[edit]Switch

design

Long distance switches may use a slower, more efficient switch-allocation algorithm than local central offices, because they have near 100% utilization of their input and output channels. Central offices have more than 90% of their channel capacity unused. Traditional telephone switches connected physical circuits (e.g., wire pairs) while modern telephone switches use a combination of space- and time-division switching. In other words, each voice channel is represented by a time slot (say 1 or 2) on a physical wire pair (A or B). In order to connect two voice channels (say A1 and B2) together, the telephone switch interchanges the information between A1 and B2. It switches both the time slot and physical connection. To do this, it exchanges data between the time slots and connections 8000 times per second, under control of digital logic that cycles through electronic lists of the current connections. Using both types of switching makes a modern switch far smaller than either a space or time switch could be by itself. The structure of a switch is an odd number of layers of smaller, simpler subswitches. Each layer is interconnected by a web of wires that goes from each subswitch, to a set of the next layer of subswitches. In most designs, a physical (space) switching layer alternates with a time switching layer. The layers are symmetric, because in a telephone system callers can also be callees. A time-division subswitch reads a complete cycle of time slots into a memory, and then writes it out in a different order, also under control of a cyclic computer memory. This causes some delay in the signal. A space-division subswitch switches electrical paths, often using some variant of a nonblocking minimal spanning switch, or a crossover switch.
[edit]Switch [edit]Fully

control algorithms

connected mesh network

One way is to have enough switching fabric to assure that the pairwise allocation will always succeed by building a fully connected mesh network. This is the method usually used in central office switches, which have low utilization of their resources.
[edit]Clos's

nonblocking switch algorithm

Main article: Nonblocking minimal spanning switch The scarce resources in a telephone switch are the connections between layers of subswitches. The control logic has to allocate these connections, and most switches do so in a way that is fault tolerant. See nonblocking minimal spanning switch for a discussion of the Charles Clos algorithm, used in many telephone switches, and a very important algorithm to the telephone industry.
[edit]Fault

tolerance

Composite switches are inherently fault-tolerant. If a subswitch fails, the controlling computer can sense it during a periodic test. The computer marks all the connections to the subswitch as "in use". This prevents new calls, and does not interrupt old calls that remain working. As calls in progress end, the subswitch becomes unused, and new calls avoid the subswitch because it's already "in use." Some time later, a technician can replace the circuit board. When the next test succeeds, the connections to the repaired subsystem are marked "not in use," and the switch returns to full operation. To prevent frustration with unsensed failures, all the connections between layers in the switch are allocated using first-in-first-out lists (queues). As a result, if a connection is faulty or noisy and the customer hangs up and redials, they will get a different set of connections and subswitches. A last-in-first-out (stack) allocation of connections might cause a continuing string of very frustrating failures.
[edit]Internet

exchanges

The telephone exchange concept has been adapted for use in Internet exchanges. Voice over IP (VoIP) traffic may pass through both kinds of exchanges, depending on what kind of service the caller and the called subscriber are using.
[edit]See

also

History of telecommunication List of telephone switches Pair gain system Full Availability, Limited Availability and Gradings Softswitch Stored Program Control exchange Strowger switch Telephone number DSLAM DSL ISDN PDH Plesiochronous Digital Hierarchy PBX Private Branch Exchange or business-level switch Telephone exchange names First telephone exchange in UK - Faraday building

In US telecommunication jargon, a central office (C.O.) is a common carrier switching center Class 5 telephone switches in which trunks and local loops are terminated and switched.[15]

Note: In the DOD, "common carrier" is called "commercial carrier." Synonyms exchange, local central office, local exchange, local office, switching center (except in DOD Defense Switched Network (formerly AUTOVON) usage), switching exchange, telephone exchange. Deprecated synonym switch.[15]
[edit]Notes

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

^ Private Telegraphs, The Sydney Morning Herald, credited to The Times, April 19, 1878, p. 6. ^ http://www.hungarian-history.hu/mszh/epuskas.htm ^ "SZTNH". Mszh.hu. Retrieved 2012-07-01. ^ "Pusks, Tivadar". Omikk.bme.hu. Retrieved 2012-07-01. ^ "Welcome hunreal.com - BlueHost.com". Hunreal.com. Retrieved 2012-07-01. ^ Frank Lewis Dyer: Edison His Life And Inventions. (page: 71) ^ See National Park Service "first switchboard" page. ^ http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33871608/early%20manchester%20telephone%20exchanges.pdf ^ "Siemens History Site - Information & Communications". Siemens.com. Retrieved 2012-07-01.

10. ^ a b Calvert, J. B. (2003-09-07). "Basic Telephones". Retrieved 2007-09-13. 11. ^ Calvert, J. B. (2003-09-07). "Basic Telephones, The Switchboard (ringdown is near bottom)". Retrieved 2006-09-13. 12. ^ a b Connected to a switch, an off-hook condition operates a relay to connect a dial tone and a device to collect dialed digits. 13. ^ This article incorporates public domain material from the General Services Administration document "Federal Standard

1037C" (in support of MIL-STD-188). 14. ^ (Ronayne 1986, p. 12). 15. ^ a b Source: from Federal Standard 1037C.

Ronayne, John P. (1986). Introduction to Digital Communications Switching (1st edition ed.). Indianapolis: Howard W. Sams & Co., Inc. ISBN 0-672-22498-4.

[edit]External

links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Telephone exchanges

Hundreds of Telephone Central Office Pictures Telephone Central Office History and Pictures Telephone Central Office Building Pictures (historical preservation) History of Central Offices

Clive Feather's guide to the BT network Basic Telephones Technology Roger W. Haworth's guide to London (UK) Director Exchange Names National Park Service's page about the first telephone exchange patent 252,576 for the first telephone switchboard in 1881 A Telecom Exchange Tour in NZ Picture collection Telephon and Exchange

Alexander Graham Bell patented the first Telephone instrument capable of practical use in 1876. This method was used in the first commercial instrument developed by Bell in 1876. In 1878, the first telephone exchange was established at New Haven. In 1880, two Telephone Companies viz. The Oriental Telephone Company Ltd. and The Anglo-Indian Telephone Company Ltd. approached the Govt. of India for permission

to establish Telephone Exchanges in India. The permission was however refused on the grounds that the establishment of Telegraphs was a Government monopoly and that the Government itself would undertake the work in the event of sufficient demand. By 1881, Govt. of India changed their earlier decision and licence was granted to the original Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England for opening Telephone Exchanges at Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, Karachi and Ahmedabad. 28th January, 1882, is a Red Letter Day in the history of Telephone in India. On this day Major E. Baring, Member of the Governor General's Council declared open the Telephone Exchange in Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. The exchange at Calcutta named "Central Exchange" was opened at third floor of the building at 7, Council House Street. On 30-06-1882, the Central Telephone Exchange had 93 number of subscribers.

A distant view of old Writers Building taken before the Dalhousie Institute was built within Dalhousie Square. The foundation of Dalhousie Institute was laid on 4th March 1865 On 1899, The Central Tele- phone Exchange wsa shifted to 1, Council House Street. The management of the Oriental Telephone Company was subsequently taken over by Bengal Telephone Company Limited. The telephone system in the city remained under management of Private Company till 1941 when all the shares of the Private company were purchased by a Public Enterprise. The capital expen- diture involved in this deal was Rs 117 lakhs only. From 1st April 1943, the control of the Telephone system in Calcutta,Madras and Bombay was taken over directly by the Indian Posts and Telegraphs Deptt. In 1985, Indian P & T was bifurcated and the control of Telephone has been transferred to Deptt. Of Telecom. On 01-10-2002, the telephone system of Calcutta came under Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) alongwith all other circles except the city of Delhi and Mumbay which are under Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

Dalhousie Institute Building - demolished on 1950 to make space for construction of Telephone Bhawan Calcutta Telephone District CTD) is the largest metro district of BSNL. Calcutta Telephones is having a service area of 1900 sq. k.m. covering the city of Kolkata and adjoining areas from five districts of West Bengal viz. Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas. At the time of Independence there were 20,000 phone connections in Kolkata. The figure rose to 5,00,000 by March 18, 1997 and crossed 1 million by February 27, 2000. CTD is the first metro network in the country to become fully electronic on 31-03-99 and is the first metro network in the country to become fully digital on 31-03-2000.

Operators at Hare Street Manual Exchange - 1935 Today on 31-03-2003, CTD is the most modern metro network of BSNL with about 13 lakh customers where telephone is available on demand, ISDN is available on demand and also leased circuit is available on demand. During the last two years a large number of new technologies, new services and new customer care facilities have been introduced. New Technologies and New Services New technologies which have been introduced are

STM rings Intelligent Network (IN) (first city to launch the service)

Local Network Managed System (first city to launch the technology) Microtunnelling (first city to launch the technology) Managed Leased Line Network (MLLN) Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) India Mobile Personal Communication Service (IMPCS) Centrex Answering Machine Service (AMS) Fibre to the Building in the form of RLU and DLC which has reduced the average copper loop length to less than 2 K.M. Direct Internet Access Service (DIAS) Voice over IP (VOIP) Account Less Internet Internet Telephony (Webfone) Sampark (IVRS based)

Customer Care Steps

Trending Stories

Different modes of bill payment Changed number enquiry service 1951/1952/1953 Billing information system 1501/1502/1503 Telephonic reconnection service Telephonic address correction Fault docketing through IVRS CTD web site

Airtel Cant Add New 3G...72

BSNL Reduces Free Data in...47

BSNL Launches Pan India Yearly...44

Tata Docomo Increases Prepaid Base...43

Aircel Revises All Pocket Internet...43

Sistemas Data Strategy for India:...30

Reliance Jio Gets 10,000 Mobile...25

Tata Teleservices To Submit Additional...22

Gionee Launched Affordable Smartphone P1...18

3G Roaming : Supreme Court...17

Home TECHNOLOGY History of Indian Telecommunication

History of Indian Telecommunication

by TT Desk on May 29, 2011 1:34 pm | TECHNOLOGY 38 Comments

India is the worlds fastest growing industry in the world in terms of number of wireless connections after China, with 811.59 million mobile phone subscribers. According to the world telecommunications industry, India will have 1.200 billion mobile subscribers by 2013. Furthermore, projections by several leading global consultancies indicate that the total number of subscribers in India will exceed the total subscriber count in the China by 2013. So how Telecommunication started in India?? Well Postal means of communication was the only mean communication until the year 1850. In 1850 experimental electric telegraph started for first time in India between Calcutta (Kolkata) and Diamond Harbor (southern suburbs of Kolkata, on the banks of the Hooghly River). In 1851, it was opened for the use of the British East India Company. Subsequently construction of telegraph started through out India. A separate department was opened to the public in 1854. Dr.William OShaughnessy, who pioneered the telegraph and telephone in India, belonged to the Public Works Department, and worked towards the development of telecom. Calcutta or the-then Kolkata was chosen as it was the capital of British India. In early1881, Oriental Telephone Company Limited of England opened telephone exchanges at Calcutta (Kolkata), Bombay (Mumbai), Madras (Chennai) and Ahmedabad. On the 28th January 1882 the first formal telephone service was established with a total of 93 subscribers. From the year 1902 India drastically changes from cable telegraph to wireless telegraph, radio telegraph, radio telephone, trunk dialing. Trunk dialing used in India for more than a decade, were system allowed subscribers to dial calls with operator assistance. Later moved to digital microwave, optical fiber, satellite earth station. During British period all major cities and towns in India were linked with telephones. So who was looking after Telecom?? In the year 1975 Department of Telecom (DoT) was responsible for telecom services in entire country after separation from Indian Post & Telecommunication. Decade later Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) was chipped out of DoT to run the telecom services of Delhi and Mumbai. In 1990s the telecom sector was opened up by the Government for private investment. In1995 TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) was setup. This reduced the interference of Government in deciding tariffs and policy making. The Government of India corporatized the operations wing of DoT in 2000 and renamed Department of Telecom as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). In last 10 years many private operators especially foreign investors successfully entered the high potential Indian telecom market. Globally acclaimed operators like Telenor, NTT Docomo, Vodafone, Sistema, SingTel, Maxis, Etisalat invested in India mobile operators.

Wireless Communication Pager Services Pager communication successful launched in India in the year 1995. Pagers were looked upon as devices that offered the much needed mobility in communication, especially for businesses. Motorola was a major player with nearly 80 per cent of the market share. The other companies included Mobilink, Pagelink, BPL, Usha Martin telecom and Easy call. Pagers were generally worn on the belt or carried in the pocket. The business peaked in 1998 with the subscriber base reaching nearly 2 million. However, the number dropped to less than 500,000 in 2002. The pager companies in India were soon struggling to maintain their business. While 2-way pagers could have buffered the fall, the pager companies were not in a position to upgrade their infrastructure to improve the ailing market. The Indian Paging Services Association was unable to support the industry. Pager companies in India also offered their services in regional languages also. However, the end had begun already. By 2002, Motorola stops making or servicing pagers. When mobile phones were commercially launched in India, the pager had many advantages to boast. Pagers were smaller, had a longer battery life and were considerably cheaper. However, the mobile phones got better with time and continuously upgraded themselves. Mobile Communication First mobile telephone service on non-commercial basis started in India on 48th Independence Day at countrys capital Delhi. The first cellular call was made in India on July 31st, 1995 over Modi Telstras MobileNet GSM network of Kolkata. Later mobile telephone services are divided into multiple zones known as circles. Competition has caused prices to drop and calls across India are one of the cheapest in the world. Most of operator follows GSM mobile system operate under 900MHz bandwidth few recent players started operating under 1800MHz bandwidth. CDMA operators operate under 800Mhz band, they are first to introduce EVDO based high speed wireless data services via USB dongle. In spite of this huge growth Indian telecom sector is hit by severe spectrum crunch, corruption by India Govt. officials and financial troubles. In 2008, India entered the 3G arena with the launch of 3G enabled Mobile and Data services by Government owned MTNL and BSNL. Later from November 2010 private operators started to launch their services. Broadband communication After US, Japan, India stands in third largest Internet users of which 40% of Internet used via mobile phones. India ranks one of the lowest provider of broadband speed as compared countries such as Japan, India and Norway. Minimum broadband speed of 256kbit/s but speed above 2Mbits is still in a nascent stage. Year 2007 had been declared as Year of Broadband in India. Telcos based on ADSL/VDSL in India generally have speeds up to 24Mbit max while those based on newer Optical Fiber technology offer up to 100Mbits in some plans Fiberoptic communication (FTTx). Broadband growth has been plagued by many problems. Complicated tariff structure, metered billing, High charges for right of way, Lack of domestic content, non implementation of Local-loop unbundling have all resulted in hindrance to the growth of broadband. Many experts think future of broadband is on the hands of wireless factor. BWA auction winners are expected to roll out LTE and WiMAX in India in 2012. Next Generation Network (NGN)

Next Generation Networks, multiple access networks can connect customers to a core network based on IP technology. These access networks include fiber optics or coaxial cable networks connected to fixed locations or customers connected through Wi-Fi as well as to 3G networks connected to mobile users. As a result, in the future, it would be impossible to identify whether the next generation network is a fixed or mobile network and the wireless access broadband would be used both for fixed and mobile services. It would then be futile to differentiate between fixed and mobile networks both fixed and mobile users will access services through a single core network. Cloud based data services are expected to come. Indian Satellites India has launched more than 50 satellites of various types, since its first attempt in 1975. The organization responsible for Indian satellites is the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO). Most Satellites have been launched from various vehicles, including American, Russian, European satellite-launch rockets, and the U.S. Space Shuttle. First Indian satellite Aryabhata on 19th April 1975, later Bhaskara, Rohini, INSAT, Edusat, IRS, GSAT, Kalpana, Cartosat, IMS, Chandrayaan, ResourceSat, RiSat, AnuSat, etc. Well guys this is how telecom Industry is growing in India, hope to see India far ahead of other countries in near future. About the author:

Amruth.H.R is a Engineer by profession a cellphone freak and a developer.