Chapter Two

Switching Evolution and Architecture

2.1 Introduction

• Telecommunication has evaluated and growth at an explosive rate in recent years and will
undoubtedly continue to do so.
• The communication switching system enables the universal connectivity. The universal
connectivity is realized when any entity in one part of the world can communicate with any other
entity in another part of the world.
• In many ways telecommunication will acts as a substitute for the increasingly expensive physical
transportation.
• The telecommunication links and switching were mainly designed for voice communication. With
the appropriate attachments/equipment's, they can be used to transmit data.
• A modern society, therefore needs new facilities including very high bandwidth switched data
networks, and large communication satellites with small, cheap earth antennas.
• The purpose of a telecommunication switching system is to provide the means to pass information
from any terminal device to any other terminal device selected by the originator.
 2.2 Switching System

• A switching system is a collection of switching elements arranged and controlled to setup a

communication path between any two distant points.

• The switching centers receives the control signals, messages or conversations and forwards to the

required destination, after necessary modification (link amplifications) if necessary.

• A switching center of a telephone network comprising a switching network and its control and support

equipment is called a central office.

 2.2.1 Historical Development
 The early stages of the development of telecommunication were due to A.G. Bell, G. Marconi and C.E.
Shannon.
 In 1876, Bell invented a telephone system.
 In 1897 Marconi patented a wireless telephone system.
 Teletypewriter service was initiated in 1931.
 TTY (Teletypewriter) is a device that allows users to send typed messages across phone lines.
 In early days, a very simple exchanges whose control is provided by a human operator and the elements
of the switch assemblies are plugs and sacks.
 With increase in demand of service, human operator exchange was replaced by the invention of range of
electromechanical switching devices. This began to change when a crude automatic switch, invented by
Almon Strowger, was improved into the first practical automatic switch around 1900.
 The application of Strowger switches, panel and crossbar switches, automated the telephone system.
 Automatic telephone switching was critical in making the telephone the influential mass market
technology it became.
 It was also influential as an early and widespread example of automation of an electromechanical service.
 Time Line
 1878 The first manual telephone exchange opens in New Haven, Connecticut.
 1889 Almon Strowger invents the first automatic telephone switch.
 1892 The first prototype of the Strowger system operates.
 1896 Alexander Keith, John Erickson, and Charles Erickson invent the dial telephone.
 1896 The first prototype of a dial telephone system operates
 1912 Gotthief A. Betulander invents the first all-relay telephone switch.
 1913 John Reynolds invents the crossbar selector.
 1916 William Blauvelt develops a telephone numbering plan for large cities.
 1921 AT&T (American Telephone & Telegraph) introduces the panel switch, designed for use in large cities.
 1938 AT&T installs the first #1 crossbar switch in New York City.
 1943 AT&T introduces the #4 crossbar switch, designed for long distance calls.
 1948 AT&T introduces the #5 crossbar switch, designed for suburban exchanges.
 1951 Customer dialing of long distance calls begins in the United States.
 1965 AT&T installs the first all-electronic telephone switch.
 The story of innovations in telephony is an American story, in part because as late as the 1950s, the U.S. had more
than half of the world’s telephones.
1. Human Switching Operator

In the manual way the dialer could dial the entire number, and an operator could receive the number
and know the manual exchange to which it should be forwarded.

Fig 2.1 :Human Switching Operator

Limitations of manual exchange

• Language dependent

• Lack of privacy

• Switching delay

• Limited number of features

 2. The Strowger Switch

 In the Strowger switch, pulses generated at a subscriber’s telephone directly moved electromagnetic
contacts in a two-way motion in a stack of rotary contacts, thus selecting a telephone number, one digit
at a time, without operator intervention.
 Strowger’s original device was crude and impractical.
 After 1910, Strowger’s switches began spreading to Europe.
 Additional improvements by Keith and others at Automatic Electric further improved the switch.
 By 1914, over 400,000 dial telephones were in use in the United States.
 The Strowger, or step-by-step switch became known, remained the most widespread switch in use until
the 1960s, and it was particularly common in non-urban exchanges.
Fig 2.2: The Strowger Switch
Limitations of Strowger

 no alternative routing possible since the call processor is step by step

 Can handle only slow speed dialing

 Lots of mechanical components and requires non stop maintenance

 Congestion could arise when the switching system is heavily loaded

 3. AT&T's Crossbar Switch

Features of cross bar switch

• AT&T began work on an alternative to the panel switch even before the first panel switch was installed.
• N2 Switching Elements For N Subscribers
• E.g: for 50 subscribers we have 2500 cross point switches required
• It is economical for small private exchange
• It is easier to maintain because of the switch have significantly fewer moving parts than strowger switching
system
• It have the common control circuit which perform the following tasks:
• Call setup, monitor and disconnect the call and billing
• Handle (route) several calls simultaneously on a shared basis
• Receiving the entire number (all digits) before processing the call which is better than strowger switch
• It allows the subscribers and the cross bar switch to share the common equipment's to process the call
Fig 2.3: AT&T's Crossbar Switch
 4. Stored Program Control

• The electromechanical switching systems have been replaced by computer controlled switching systems
referred to as stored program control (SPC). In order to increase the efficiency and speed of control and
signaling in switching, the use of electronics was introduced.

• In SPC, switching is controlled by software program. The first computer controlled switch was introduced in
1960.

• It permits the features like abbreviated dialing, call forwarding, call waiting, etc. The Stored Program Control
concept is where a program or a set of instructions to the computer is stored in its memory and the
instructions are executed automatically one by one by the processor.

• The processors used by SPC are designed based on the requirements of the exchange. The processors are
duplicated; and, using more than one processor makes the process reliable.
Fig 2.4: Structure of SPC
 Features of SPC

• Computer controlled switching system

• Uses digital computer

• Control functions

• Support features like abbreviated dialing, call forwarding, call waiting, etc. The Stored Program

• Specific set of instructions called programs are stored in its memory

• Executed automatically one by one

• High speed versatile processor

• Improve the reliability

• Trunk routing to other exchanges

• Distributed hard ware and software architecture

 2.2.2 Types of Switching System
1. Distributed Method

A simplest way of structuring the telecommunication switching is the terminal-to terminal connection.
This kind of switching is called distributed switching and applied only to small telephone system.

Fig 2.5: Distributed model

 2. Centralized Model

• The distributed system cannot be extended to large terminal cases and the increased geographical separation
of terminals.
• A simple centralized system, which reduces the average length of transmission link. Even though it
increases the total switching costs. Introducing more local centers instead of one national center switching
machine can further reduce the transmission cost.
• Fig: 2.6: Centralized model
3. Hierarchical system

• Central offices may be interconnected by direct trunk groups or by intermediate office known as a
tandem, toll or gateway office.
• The process of centralizing switching centers can occur at several levels leading to the hierarchical
network.
Fig: 2.7: Typical interconnection of
central office .
 2.2.3 Switching Techniques

Circuits VS Packet Switching

 Communication via circuit switching implies that there is a dedicated communication path between two
stations. That path is a connected sequence of links between network nodes. On each physical link, a
logical channel is dedicated to the connection.
 Communication via circuit switching involves three phases:
1. Circuit establishment. Before any signals can be transmitted, an end-to-end (station-to-station) circuit
must be established.
2. Data transfer
3. Circuit disconnects. After some period of data transfer, the connection is terminated
 The switches must have the intelligence to make channel allocations and to devise a route through the
network.
 Circuit switching is inefficient. Since channel capacity is dedicated for the duration of a connection, even
if no data are being transferred. For a voice connection, utilization may be rather high.
• Packet Switching break streams of data into smaller blocks of data(packets). Each of these small blocks
are then sent independently over a shared network based on the destination address of each packet.

• When received, packets are reassembled in the proper sequence to make up the message.

 Circuit-switched networks and packet-switched networks have traditionally occupied different spaces
within corporations.

 Circuit-switched networks were used for phone calls and packet-switched networks handled data. But
because of the reach of phone lines and the efficiency and low cost of data networks, the two
technologies have shared tasks for years.

• Circuit switching was developed to handle voice traffic but is now also used for data traffic.
Table 2.1 :The best-known example of a circuit-switching network PSTN
 2.3. Signaling System
• A subscriber can be able to talk with or send data to someone in any part of the world almost instantly
and an exchange is able to set path and clear it after the conversation instantly by an effective signaling
system.
• A signaling system link the variety of switching system, transmission systems and subscriber
equipment's in a telecommunication network to enable the network to function as a whole.
• The signaling are classified according to the internal signaling of an exchange, signaling between
exchanges and signaling between an exchange and subscriber.
• Thus a signaling system must be obviously be compatible with the switching systems which itself
partitioned
into subsystems in a network.
• Traditional exchanges sent signals over the same circuit in the network.
• The introduction of SPC in exchanges enhances the services and introduced new services to the
subscriber. These services require more signals to be transmitted and hence needs a separate data
channel.
• The former method of signaling is referred as channel associated signaling and the latter is common
channel signaling.
• In the following sections, the world wide popular signaling system 7 (SS7) are described
 2.3.1. Signaling System #7 (SS7)

 Common Channel Signaling System (SS7 or C7) is a worldwide standard for telecommunications, defined by the
International Telecommunication Union (ITU).
 The SS7 standard defines the procedures and protocol by which network elements in the public switched telephone
network (PSTN) exchange information over a digital signaling network to enable wireless (cellular) and wireline call
setup, routing, and control.
 It is the protocol used by the telephone companies for interoffice signaling.
 The SS7 network and protocol are used for:
1. Basic call setup, management, and tear down
2. Wireless services such as personal communications services (PCS), wireless roaming, and mobile subscriber
authentication.
3. Local number portability (LNP)
4. payment-free (800/888) and payment (900) wireline services
5. Enhanced call features such as call forwarding, calling party name/number display, and three way calling
6. Efficient and secure worldwide telecommunications
7. SMS (Short Message Service)
 Signaling Points

 Each signaling point in the SS7 network is uniquely identified by a numeric point code.
 Point codes are carried in signaling messages exchanged between signaling points to identify the
source and destination of each message.
 Each signaling point uses a routing table to select the appropriate signaling path for each message.
• There are three kinds of signaling points in the SS7 network:
• SSP (Service Switching Point)
• STP (Signal Transfer Point)
• SCP (service control point)
Fig 2.8: Signaling points in the SS7 network
Cont…

• SSPs are switches that originate, terminate or tandem calls.

• SSP sends signaling messages to other SSPs to setup, manage and release voice circuits required
to complete a call.
• SSP may also send a query message to a centralized database (an SCP) to determine how to route
a call.
• SCP sends a response to the originating SSP containing the routing number(s) associated with the
dialed number.
• An alternate routing number may be used by the SSP if the primary number is busy or the call is
unanswered within a specified time.
• Actual call features vary from network to network and from service to service.
Cont…

• Network traffic between signaling points may be routed via a packet switch called an STP.
• STP routes each incoming message to an outgoing signaling link based on routing information contained in
the SS7 message.
• Because it acts as a network hub, an STP provides improved utilization of the SS7 network by eliminating
the need for direct links between signaling points.
• STP may perform global title translation, a procedure by which the destination signaling point is determined
from digits present in the signaling message (e.g., the dialed 800 numbers, calling card number or mobile
subscriber identification number).
• STP can also act as a "firewall" to screen SS7 messages exchanged with other networks. Because the SS7
network is critical to call processing, SCPs and STPs are usually deployed in mated pair configurations in
separate physical locations to ensure network-wide service in the event of an isolated failure.
Cont…

• Links between signaling points are also provisioned in pairs.

• Traffic is shared across all links in the link-set.
• If one of the links fails, the signaling traffic is rerouted over another link in the link-set.
• The SS7 protocol provides both error correction and retransmission capabilities to allow
continued service in the event of signaling point or link failures.
• The switching offices (SPs) handle the SS#7 control networks as well as the user circuit-switched
network.
 Basically, the SS#7 control network tells the switching office which paths to establish over the
circuit-switched network.

• The STPs route SS#7 control packets across the signaling network.
2.3.2. SS7 Signaling Link Types

 Signaling links are logically organized by link type ("A" through "F") according to their use in the SS7 signaling
network.
Cont…
1. A Link: An "A" (access) link connects a signaling end point (e.g., an SCP or SSP) to an STP. Only messages
originating from or destined to the signaling end point are transmitted on an "A" link.
2. B Link: A "B" (bridge) link connects one STP to another. Typically, a quad of "B" links interconnect peer (or
primary) STPs (e.g., the STPs from one network to the STPs of another network). The distinction between a "B"
link and a "D" link is rather arbitrary. For this reason, such links may be referred to as "B/D" links.
3. C Link: A "C" (cross) link connects STPs performing identical functions into a mated pair. A "C" link is used only
when an STP has no other route available to a destination signaling point due to link failure(s). Note that SCPs may
also be deployed in pairs to improve reliability; unlike STPs however, mated SCPs are not interconnected by
signaling links.
4. D Link: A "D" (diagonal) link connects a secondary (e.g., local or regional) STP pair to a primary (e.g. inter-
network gateway) STP pair in a quad-link configuration. Secondary STPs within the same network are connected
via a quad of "D" links.
5. E Link: An "E" (extended) link connects an SSP to an alternate STP. "E" links provide an alternate signaling path if
an SSP’s "home" STP cannot be reached via an "A" link. "E" links are not usually provisioned unless the benefit of
a marginally higher degree of reliability justifies the added expense.
6. F Link: An "F" (fully associated) link connects two signaling end points (i.e., SSPs and SCPs). "F" links are not
usually used in networks with STPs. In networks without STPs, "F" links directly connect signaling points
• Cont.…