Chapter 3.

Transmission
& Switching
Techniques
Composed by Bui Thu Cao,
Pham Tran Anh Quang

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Contents

1. Definitions
2. Traffic flow
3. Transmission techniques
4. Switching techniques

2
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1. Definitions

• Transmission: the propagation of a signal, message, or other form of

intelligence by any means such as optical fiber, wire, or visual means.

Wire

Acoustic

Wireless

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1. Definitions (cont.)

• Switching: selects the route to the desired destination that the

transmitted signal travels by the closing of switches in either the
space domain, the time domain, frequency or any other forms.

Analog switching

Electronic circuit switching

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2. Traffic flow

• Measurement of telephone traffic:

A = C T
A: Traffic flow (Erlang)
C: Number of calls originated during one hour
T: Average holding time (hours)

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2. Traffic flow (cont.)

• Blockage, lost calls, and grade of service (GoS):

• Example: tel. exchange serves 5000 subscribers, no
more than 10% can connect simultaneously. When
the number of served subscribers is 500, the
subscriber 501th cannot connect. This call is a lost
call/ blocked call and that subscriber has met
blockage.
• GoS express the probability of meeting blockage
during Busy hours (BH)

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 2. Traffic flow (cont.)

• Example: determine the GoS if there are 354 lines connected

for service and 6 blocked calls during BH.

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2. Traffic flow (cont.)

• Availability: a switch has full-availability when each inlet has

access to any outlet. Otherwise, limited availability

Inlets

Outlets

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2. Traffic flow (cont.)

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3. Transmission techniques

• Wire transmission for analog signal

Audio, Modulation Wire transmission

Video (AM/FM)
➢ Pair wire
➢ Coaxial cable
➢ Optical fiber

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 3. Transmission techniques(cont.)

• Wire transmission for digital signal

Images, Line Wire transmission

Source
Audio, coding/ Digital
Format Coding/
Video, Channel Modulation
Encrypting
Data coding
➢ Pair wire
➢ Coaxial cable
➢ Optical fiber

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3. Transmission techniques(cont.)

• Wire transmission:

Waveguide

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 3. Transmission techniques(cont.)

• Wireless transmission for analog signal

Audio, Format Modulation Multiplexing Transmitter

Video (transducer) AM/FM FDM

Receiver
Audio, Deformat Demodulation Demultiplexing
Video (intransducer) AM/FM FDM

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 3. Transmission techniques(cont.)

• Wireless transmission for digital transmission

Images, Line
Source
Audio, coding/ Digital
Format Coding/ Multiplexing
Video, Data Channel Modulation
Encrypting
coding

RF TRANSMITTER

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 3. Transmission techniques (cont.)

• Wireless transmission for digital transmission

Images, Line
Source
Audio, Decoding/ Digital
Deformat Decoding/ Demultiplexing
Video, Data Channel Demodulation
Encrypting
Decoding

RF RECEIVER

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3. Transmission techniques(cont.)

• Why do we modulate many stages for radio transmission?

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Comparison

Analog transmission Digital transmission

Advantage Disadvantage

Disadvantage Advantage

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 3.1. Wire transmission

• General characteristics:
attenuation (loss),
degradation/distortion, delay and
Transmitter Truyền dẫn sóng bằng dây song hành
noise Pin
LdB = 10 log (dB) dx
Pout IN1
R'dx L'dx
OUT1

G'dx C'dx
 Peak _ signal 
PSNR = 20 log  IN2 OUT2

 Noise 

Skin effect creates a change of the

characteristic resistance of the
transmission lines

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3.1. Wire transmission (cont.)

• Ex: Suppose a 10-mW (milli watt), 1000-Hz signal is launched into a wire
pair. At the distant end of the wire pair the signal is measured at 0.2 mW.
What is the loss in decibels on the line for this signal?

Solution:

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Twisted pair cables

Unshielded twisted pair (UTP)

Shielded twisted pair (STP)

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 Twisted pairs chracteristics
10BASE-T and Described in EIA/TIA-568. Unsuitable for
16MHz[6] 100BASE-T4 speeds above 16 Mbit/s. Now mainly for
Ethernet[6] telephone cables[6]
UTP[6] 20MHz[6] 16 Mbit/s[6] Token Ring Not commonly used[6]
UTP[6] 100MHz[6] 100BASE-TX & 1000BASE-T Ethernet[6] Common in most current LANs[6]

Enhanced Cat5. Same construction as

UTP[6] 100MHz[6] 100BASE-TX & 1000BASE-T Ethernet[6]
Cat5, but with better testing standards.
Most commonly installed cable in Finland
UTP[6] 250MHz[6] 1000BASE-T Ethernet according to the 2002 standard. SFS-EN
50173-1
250MHz (500MHz Not a standard; a cable maker's own
according to some) label.

500MHz 10GBASE-T Ethernet ISO/IEC 11801:2002 Amendment 2.

Telephone, CCTV, 1000BASE-TX in the Four pairs, U/FTP (shielded pairs).

S/FTP[6] 600MHz[6]
same cable. 10GBASE-T Ethernet. Standard under development.
Four pairs, S/FTP (shielded pairs, braid-
Telephone, CATV, 1000BASE-TX in the
1000MHz screened cable). Standard under
same cable. 10GBASE-T Ethernet.
development.

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Coaxial Cables

Range up to 10 GHz for the transmission frequency

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Fiber-Optic cables
Transfer mode in fiber-optic cables

Range up to 100 Petabit per second

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3.2. Wireless (Radio) transmission

Electromagnetic Waves

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3.2. Wireless (Radio) transmission

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Electromagnetic Spectrum

http://www.edumedia-sciences.com/a185_l2-transverse-electromagnetic-
wave.html
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Electromagnetic Spectrum

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Wave length Frequency Transmission Propagation Representative Frequency
Designations Media Modes Applications

Extra High Satellite,

1 cm Frequency (EHF) Microwave relay, 100 GHz
Wave guide Earth-satellite radar.
Super High
10 cm Frequency (SHF) 10 GHz
Line-of-sight radio
Ultra High Wireless comm.
1m Frequency (UHF) service, 1 GHz
Cellular, pagers, UHF
TV
Very High Coaxial Cable Mobile, Aeronautical,
10m Frequency (VHF) Sky wave radio VHF TV and FM,
mobile radio 100 MHz
High Frequency Amateur radio, Civil
100m (HF) Defense 10 MHz

Medium High AM broadcasting

1 km Frequency (MF) Ground wave 1 MHz
radio
Low Frequency Aeronautical,
10 km (LF) Submarine cable, 100 kHz
Wire pairs
Navigation,
Very Low Transoceanic radio
100km Frequency (VLF) 10 kHz

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4. Switching techniques

• Switching connects and transmits a signal between the

source and the destination.
• Three typical switching for digital traffic:
• Circuit Switching
• Message Switching
• Packet Switching

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4.1 Circuit switching

▪ Circuit switching is a technique that directly connects the sender

and the receiver in an unbroken path.
▪ With this type of switching technique, once a connection is
established, a dedicated path exists between both ends until the
connection is terminated.
▪ Routing decisions must be made when the circuit is first
established, but there are no decisions made after that time

Inlets Space Division Switching (SDS)

Crosspoints
Outlets
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4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

▪ Circuit switching in a network operates almost the same way as

the telephone system works.
▪ A complete end-to-end path must exist before communication
can take place.
▪ The computer initiating the data transfer must ask for a
connection to the destination.
▪ Once the connection has been initiated and completed to the
destination device, the destination device must acknowledge
that it is ready and willing to carry on a transfer.

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4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

Space division switching with multi-stages

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 4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

Time slot interchange (TSI) or Time division multiplex -TDM)

x1 (t ) d1 (n) d1 (n) x1 (t )
DM DDM
x2 (t ) d 2 ( n) d 2 ( n) x2 (t )
DM D(n) D(n) DDM
TSI Switching

xN (t ) d N (n) d N (n) xN (t )
DM Transmission DDM

Multiplexer Demultiplexer

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 4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

Examples,
x1 (t ) d1 (n) d1 (n) x1 (t )
DM DDM
x2 (t ) d 2 ( n) d 2 ( n) x2 (t )
DM D(n) D(n) DDM
TSI Switching

xN (t ) d N (n) d N (n) xN (t )
DM Transmission DDM

Multiplexer Demultiplexer

• Sampled frequency: 8KHz

• Switching frequency (or the clock of TSI): 200MHz
➢ Define the rate of dn(n)
➢ Define the maximum capacity of the TSI
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Comparison

SDS TSI/TDM
Advantage Disadvantage
- Simple - Complex
- Low cost - Expensive
- High rate/ Larger BW - Low rate/ Smaller BW

Disadvantage
- High noise/ Low quality
- Not ability for extend inlets/ cross points
- More increase cost when increase in large
amount of cross points
Advantage
- Low noise/ High quality
- Ability for extend inlets/ cross points
- Not much increase cost when increase in large
amount of cross points

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4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

TST (Time-Space-Time)

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4.1 Circuit switching (cont.)

▪ One attractive feature of a single stage switch is that it is strictly

Nonblocking
▪ If the called party is idle, the desired connection can always be
established by selecting the particular crosspoint dedicated to the
particular input/output pair
▪ When crosspoints are shared, the possibility of blocking arises
▪ In 1953, Charles Clos of Bell Lab demonstrated that if each
individual array is nonblocking, and if the number of center stages
k is equal to 2n-1, the switch is strictly nonblocking

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 Nonblocking switches for SDS

• Nonblocking condition:
• Connection through the three-stage switch requires locating a center-stage array
with an idle link from the appropriate first stage and idle link to the appropriate
third stage
• Individual arrays themselves are nonblocking
• Desired path can be set up any time a center stage with the appropriate idle links
can be located
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Nonblocking switches for SDS (cont.)
Three-stage switch is strictly nonblocking if

k = 2n – 1
• Optimum value of n, that yields the
minimum number of crosspoints,

N
nopt =
2

N x (min) = 4 N (2n − 1)

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Exercise

• Design a SDS if there 128 subscribers in the telephone system.

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Blocking probabilities

▪ Strictly nonblocking switches are rarely needed in most voice telephone

networks
▪ Public telephone network is designed to provide a certain maximum probability
of blocking for the busiest hour of the day
▪ Value of blocking probability is one aspect of the telephone company’s grade of
service
✓ Availability
✓ Transmission quality
✓ Delay in setting up a call
▪ Typical residential telephone is busy 5-10% of the time during the busy hour
▪ Business telephone is often busy for a larger percentage of their busy hour
▪ Network-blocking occurrences on the order of 1% during the busy hour do not
represent a significant reduction in the ability to communicate since the called
party is much more likely to have been busy anyway
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 Blocking probabilities

• Calculating blocking probabilities

proposed by C. Y. Lee
• Determining the blocking probabilities of
various switching structures uses
utilization percentage or “loading” of
individual links
▪ Notation p is used, in general, to represent the
fraction of time that a particular link is in use (p
is the probability that a link is busy)
▪ p is sometimes referred to as an occupancy
▪ Probability that a link is idle is denoted by q = 1-
p

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Blocking probabilities

• When any one of n parallel paths can be used to complete a connection, the composite
blocking probability B is the probability that all paths are busy
• Each path is busy or idle independently of other paths
B= p n

When a series of n links are all needed to complete a connection, the blocking
probability is mostly easily determined as 1 minus the probability that they are all available
Each link is busy or idle independently of other links

B = 1 − q n = 1 − (1 − p) n
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Blocking probabilities

✓ Any particular connection can be established with k different paths

✓ One through each center-stage array
✓ Probability that an inlet is busy is denoted by p
✓ Probability that any particular interstage link is busy is denoted by p‘
✓ The number of center-stage (second-stage) arrays is denoted by k
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Blocking probabilities

• The probability of blocking for a three-stage switching can be determined as

B= prob. that all paths are busy
= (prob. that an arbitrary path is busy)k
=(1-prob. that all the links in that path are available)k


B = (1 − q ' ) = 1 − (1 − p ' )
2 k

2 k

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Blocking probabilities

▪ Each first-stage array (switch) is of the size n × k

▪ An inlet can use any of k outputs
▪ k outputs are shared by all n inputs
▪ If the probability p that an inlet is busy is known, the probability p' that inter-
stage link is busy can be determined as
n
p' = p  = p /  Với  = k/n
k
▪ That is, the percentage of inter-stage links that are busy is reduced by a factor of ß
▪ The factor ß is defined as though k is greater than n, which implies that the first
stage of the switch is providing space expansion (i.e., switching some number of
input links to a larger number of output links)

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Blocking probabilities

▪ Actually, ß may be less than 1, implying that the first stage is

concentrating the incoming traffic
▪ First-stage concentration is usually employed in end-office or large
PBX switches where inlets are highly used (5-10%)
▪ In tandem or toll offices, however, the incoming trunks are heavily
utilized, and expansion is usually needed to provide adequately low-
blocking probabilities
▪ the blocking probability of a three-stage switch in terms of the inlet
utilization p is given by


B = 1 − (1 − p /  ) 
2 k

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Exercise

• Design a SDS of a telephone system. It is required to service for 128

subscribers with blocking probability at 0.002 and inlet utilization
probability at 0.1. Calculate the cross points of this system.

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4.2. Message Switching

✓ Signal is stored in a message and transmitted in many routs to the destination.

✓ The size of messages can be different and the time to receive the message can
be long

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4.2. Message Switching (cont.)

Characteristics:
▪ With message switching there is no need to establish a
dedicated path between two stations.
▪ When a station sends a message, the destination address is
appended to the message.
▪ The message is then transmitted through the network, in its
entirety, from node to node.
▪ Each node receives the entire message, stores it in its entirety
on disk, and then transmits the message to the next node.
▪ This type of network is called a store-and-forward network.

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4.2. Message Switching (cont.)

• Advantage:
▪ Channel efficiency can be greater compared to circuit-switched
systems, because more devices are sharing the channel.
▪ Traffic congestion can be reduced, because messages may be
temporarily stored in route.
▪ Message priorities can be established due to store-and-forward
technique.
▪ Message broadcasting can be achieved with the use of broadcast
address appended in the message

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4.2. Message Switching (cont.)

Disadvantage:
▪ The switching time is long and uncontrollable
▪ Message switching is not compatible with interactive applications.
▪ Store-and-forward devices are expensive, because they must have
large disks to hold potentially long messages.

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 4.3. Packet Switching

A message is broken into small parts, called packets, with the same size. Each packet adds
header, which include index, addresses of the source and the destination, error control
code. Then the aligned data packets are sent to the destination by different routs.

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4.3. Packet Switching (cont.)

Characteristics:
✓ There are two types of packet switching, datagram switching
and virtual circuit switching
✓ Since packets have a strictly defined maximum length, they can
be stored in main memory instead of disk, therefore access
delay and cost are minimized.
✓ The transmission speeds, between nodes, are optimized. With
current technology, packets are generally accepted onto the
network on a first-come, first-served basis. If the network
becomes overloaded, packets are delayed or discarded
(``dropped'').

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4.3. Packet Switching (cont.)

➢ The size of the packet can vary from 180 bits, the size for the
Datakit® virtual circuit switch designed by Bell Labs for
communications and business applications
➢ To 1,024 or 2,048 bits for the 1PSS® switch, also designed by
Bell Labs for public data networking
➢ To 53 bytes for ATM switching, such as Lucent Technologies'
packet switches.

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4.3. Packet Switching: Datagram

Characteristics:
➢ Datagram packet switching is like message switching in that
each packet is a self-contained unit with complete addressing
information attached.
➢ None-oriented connection: each package with the same
destination address, do not follow the same route, and they
may arrive out of sequence at the exit point node (or the
destination).
➢ Disadvantage: take much time for transmission and get more
ability for congestion on busy hours.

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4.3. Packet Switching: Virtual Circuit

▪ Oriented connect: a preplanned route is established before any

data packets are sent.
▪ A logical connection is established when, a sender send a "call
request packet" to the receiver and the receiver send back an
acknowledge packet "call accepted packet" to the sender if the
receiver agrees on conversational parameters.
▪ The conversational parameters can be maximum packet sizes,
path to be taken, and other variables necessary to establish and
maintain the conversation.
▪ Virtual circuits imply acknowledgements, flow control (sliding
window), and error control (Idle RQ, ARQ,..), so virtual circuits are
reliable.
▪ That is, they have the capability to inform upper-protocol layers if
a transmission problem occurs.
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 4.3. Packet Switching: Virtual Circuit
(cont.)
▪ In virtual circuit, the route between stations does not mean
that this is a dedicated path, as in circuit switching. It can be
rerouted again in case of dropping
▪ A packet is still buffered at each node and queued for output
over a line.
▪ The difference between virtual circuit and datagram
approaches:
➢ With virtual circuit, the node does not need to make a
routing decision for each packet.
➢ It is made only once for all packets using that virtual circuit.
➢ Virtual circuit allows to transmit information in
continuously, so it is suitable for voice and video
information

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 4.3. Packet Switching: Virtual Circuit
(cont.)
▪ VC's offer guarantees that,
The packets sent arrive in the order sent, with no duplicates or omissions, no
errors (with high probability) and regardless of how they are implemented
internally.

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4.3. Packet Switching (cont.)

• Advantages:
✓ Cost effective: because switching devices do not need
massive amount of secondary storage.
✓ Offers improved delay characteristics: because there are
no long messages in the queue (maximum packet size is
fixed). Packet can be rerouted if there is any problem, such
as, busy or disabled links.
✓ Many network users can share the same channel at the
same time.
✓ Can maximize link efficiency by making optimal use of link
bandwidth.

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4.3. Packet Switching (cont.)

• Disadvantages:
✓ Protocols for packet switching are typically more complex.
✓ It can add some initial costs in implementation.
✓ If packet is lost, sender needs to retransmit the data.
✓ Another disadvantage is that packet-switched systems still can’t
deliver the same quality as dedicated circuits in applications
requiring very little delay - like voice conversations or moving
images.

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Problems

1. Draft the general diagram of a wire transmission for analog signal.

2. Draft the general diagram of a wire transmission for digital signal.
3. Draft the general diagram of a wireless transmission for analog signal.
4. Draft the general diagram of a wireless transmission for digital signal.
5. What is skin effect in RF signal transmission? How to overcome the skin effect?
6. What are circuit switching, message switching and packet switching? And what are the suitable forms
to use these switching techniques?
7. What types of circuit switching have been using ?
8. What types of package switching have been using?
9. Compare the advantage between circuit switching and package switching.
10. Compare the advantage between datagram switching and virtual circuit switching.
11. Define switching in light of transmission.
12. Define calling rate and holding time.
13. Define lost calls using the terms offered traffic and carried traffic
14. When dealing with traffic formulas and resulting traffic tables, we have to know how lost calls are
“handled.” What are the three ways that lost calls may be handled?

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Exercises

1. Design a SDS of a telephone system. It is required to service for

128 subscribers with blocking probability at 0.02 and inlet
utilization probability at 0.15. Calculate the cross points of this
system.
2. The statistics during the BH for a particular exchange is 5 lost calls
in 841 offered calls. What is the grade of service?
3. Consider one traffic relation that has been designed to meet grade
of service objectives. We vary one characteristic—the number of
traffic channels. Argue the case for efficiency for 10 circuits versus
49 circuits during the BH. Assume grade of service as 0.01 and
$1.00 per erlang

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