Chapter # 3 Switching

Switching
If we could have point to point lines between all senders and all receivers, then we would not need switching

Switching
Imagine point to point lines between all pairs of people:# of people 2 3 10 100 1000 # of lines 1 3 45 4950 0.5 million

In general, for n people ? Advantage ? Disadvantage ?

Switching
A switch provides temporary path between end users in a communication network Amir Mubashir Asif Zia Abid Umar Khalid Traffic engineering is science of designing switching network so that circuits are optimally used & are highly available, most important consideration is cost

Exchange Structure
Elements of an exchange include following : Concentrator Concentrates calls from terminations to links Expander Expands terminating calls to terminations & trunks Distributor or group switch For interconnecting switches, # of links decided on statistical basis Types of calls could be : Own exchange calls Outgoing junction calls Incoming junction calls Transit calls

Signaling System To pass call connection / disconnection information between termination & exchange and between exchanges Channel associated or common channel signaling Control System To interpret signaling information and take appropriate measures

Switching System Classification

Circuit Switching
A path is established between caller and destination for that call If all the ccts are busy then call is lost therefore it is an example of lost call system Advantage
No delay , real time communication

Disadvantage
Low bandwidth efficiency, ccts used for fraction of time speech contains pauses and silent interval

Example is PSTN

Circuit Switching

Message Switching
Message is first stored in buffer and then sent forward as and when resources become available or sufficient messages have been collected Also called store and forward It is example of queuing system Example is telegraph message Advantage
Better utilization of bandwidth

Disadvantage
Delay

Packet Switching
Message is broken down into packets and then each packet is sent separately (possibly by different routes) If outgoing routes are busy then they are kept in queue therefore packet switch is an example of queuing system Switches should be intelligent to choose best routing path Example is internet Advantage
Better bandwidth efficiency

Disadvantage
Packet switching introduces latency

Comparison
Characteristics Circuit Origin Voice tel Packet Data NW Both High De-centralized High High

Connection Connectionless or oriented Oriented Delay Low NW intelligence BW efficiency Information Loss centralized Low Low

Manual Switching
In 1878, the first manual exchange was constructed in La Porte, in the United States The first telephone exchange was operated by hand It served 21 subscribers and could connect any two of them together A ringing signal sounded at the operator's switchboard when any of the subscribers turned the crank of his telephone Upon answering the signal, the operator was asked to connect the call

Manual Switching
A simple manual switchboard has subscribers terminations connected to jacks (sockets) The links consist of a pair of plugs on flexible cords (wires) which can be used to interconnect any pair of jacks Signaling consists of calling indicators (e.g. relays and lamps) and clearing indicators Call routing instructions are passed verbally

Manual Switching

Manual Switching
Advantages
Human control Services such as advice of duration and charge, transfer of calls when absent, wake up calls etc., which are so complex to provide automatically, pose no problem on manual exchanges

Disadvantage
The weakness of the manual exchange, which has resulted in its almost complete disappearance, was essentially its slowness Long distance calling involved chain of operators

Strowger
In 1892, first automatic system was introduced by Strowger Strowger business was being taken away by his competitor wife who was working as telephone operator Steping relay was used to allow a subscriber dialing a telephone to select one of ten lines When the subscriber dials the telephone a series of electrical pulses are generated on the line (at a maximum rate of ten per second) Each pulse causes the uni-selector (which starts at the 'home' position) to be advanced by one step

Uni-Selector

 In theory, the system could be expanded by placing ten more relays in series with each of the ten contacts from the first relay When a pause between dialing pulses is sensed the system would transfer the next set of pulses to the second relay

Strowger (two motion Selector)

Two motion selectors typically have 10 rows with 10 contacts each Two motion selector can move vertically and horizontally A two-motion selector can therefore accept two dialed digits from a subscriber and route the call to any of 100 numbers The first digit moves the selector vertically up to the corresponding level The second digit moves the wipers around the contacts of that level

Two motion Selector

Two motion Selector

Strowger
In an 100 line exchange each user has to be provided with his own 100 outlet 2 motion selector This can be avoided by using stage of uni selectors at the beginning If we want to increase the size of exchange then we can use more banks of 2 motion selectors Director is used to translate the digits dialed by user into actual routing digits for calls outside exchange

Strowger
Disadvantages Maintenance Flexibility Power Size Noise

Crossbar
A crossbar switch connects multiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner If the switch has N inputs and M outputs, then a crossbar has a matrix with M x N cross-points At each cross-point some form of switch contact is needed to complete the connection between horizontal and vertical lines Any of the N inlets can be connected to any of the M outlets by closing the appropriate switch contacts Maximum number of simultaneous connections that can be carried by a matrix switch is given by which ever of the number of inlets or outlets is smaller

 Inlet 1 to outlet 2 by closing contact ? Inlet 4 to outlet 3 by closing contact ?

Crossbar (relay)

Crossbar

Crossbar switch
Source: M. P. Clark, Networks and Telecommunications Design and Operation & Sons Ltd, pp. 96, 1997. 2nd Edition, John Wiley

Crossbar Switch Organization

Dial tone marker & register

Line Link Frame

Trunk Link Frame

Connection establishment marker & register

Crossbar Switches
Crossbar exchanges are example of common/register controlled systems i.e. control circuit is shared Basic building blocks are : Link frame (consist of number of crossbar) Marker (Controls connection between inlets and outlets) Register (decodes dialed number)

Crossbar Switches
Customer line circuit detects calling condition Signals relevant marker to establish connection through concentration stage to free transmission bridge Transmission bridge uses another marker to select free register Register will receive and analyze number and then seize Marker to set appropriate switches in group selector or concentration stage

Crossbar Switches
Once connection has been established then marker and register are released Less numbers of markers and registers are needed as they are being used during setting up of connection and dialing only Supervision of call is then provided by transmission bridge Dialed number and number allocated to particular line need not to have any relation due to use of register for translation Number of switching stages need not to be dependent on exchange numbering scheme

Multistage switching
Three possible situation for crossbar could be : m=n (non blocking), m>n (concentrating), m<n (expanding) as N increases the number of required cross points can be excessively high but fewer than 25% of the cross points are used at a given time. In order to save cross points, crossbar can be arranged in stages It can suffer internal blocking if sufficient number of stages are not provided

Multistage switching
How does it work?
4x4 4x4 4x4 4x4

4x4

4x4

4x4

4x4

Divide the 16 inlets into groups of 4. 1st outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 1st Stage 2 block. 2nd outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 2nd Stage 2 block. 3rd outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 3rd Stage 2 block ith outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the ith Stage 2 block.

Multistage switching
100 x 100 using 10 by 10 matrices
1 1 1 1 10 x 10 10 x 10

10

10

10

10

100 Inlets

(10)

(10)

100 Outlets

10 x 10

10 x 10

10

10

10

10

Multistage Switching

Multistage Switching
Advantage: The number of cross points Disadvantage: blocking Clos criterion: condition of non blocking
n = (N/2)1/2 k > 2n 1 Cross points 4N [(2N)1/2 1]

Multistage Switching
Let N = number of inlets and outlets Let n = size of each inlet-outlet group Let k = number of center-stage groups There are N/n groups in the first and last stages There are (N/n) (nk) cross points in the first and last stages There are k middle groups with (N/n)2 cross points in each middle array There are Nx = 2Nk+k(N/n)2 cross points total which is much smaller than the number of cross points in a single-stage switch (N2)

Multistage Switching
Example: For N = 100, The square matrix will require 100 x 100 = 10,000 cross points Assuming n = K = 10; # of cross points are: = 10(100/10)2 + 2 x 100 x 10 = 2200 Saving = 78%. The saving will increase as N increases Advantage: The number of cross points Disadvantage: blocking Clos criterion: condition of non blocking
n = (N/2)1/2 k > 2n 1 Cross points 4N [(2N)1/2 1]

Stored Program control

Crossbar switches were slow in processing calls Relays were replaced by vacuum tubes, transistors, CRT etc to improve speed After invention of modern digital computers they decided to use them for controlling switches also Computer use the store program concept i.e. instructions are stored in memory and are executed one by one SPC also carries out exchange control function through program stored in memory

Stored Program control

SPC allowed several features to be extended to users like Computer has to be highly tolerant to faults In 1965, first SPC exchange was installed in USA by AT&T at New Jersey There are two approaches of implementing SPC Centralized Distributed

Central Control
In Central control central processor controls every thing Central control uses reed relay for cross points Reed relay consist of sealed contacts inside an operating coil and glass They are faster and more reliable as there are sealed and there are no external moving parts Each cross point has its own reed relay This system is similar to manual exchange i.e. single processor is controlling every thing

Reed Relay

Reed Relay with Central Control

A scanner is continuously monitoring all the connections This record is accessible to processor Processor uses marker to establish path between calling line and register Register sends received to data to processor for action Processor establishes connection through reed relay switching network using marker More then one processors are employed in actual exchanges

Reed Relay with Central Control

Junctions

LC

Reed Relay SW NW

Registers Scanner Processors

Markers

Reed Relay with Central Control TXE-4(Telephone Exchange Electronics)

Distributed Control
Control functions are shared by many processors in an exchange Offers better availability and reliability and was possible because of low cost of processors Control functions can be divided horizontally or vertically Exchange control functions are divided among number of processors and each processor is responsible to do all the tasks In horizontal decomposition, each processor perform only one or some function