Lecture 2

The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

Qi Zhang

1
 PSTN

• The principle of telephone communication

• Subscriber switching (local) units
• Digital telephone switching systems
• Interface
• Switch network - the establishment of telephone channels
• Control system
• Software for program-controlled digital switches
• Traffic flow
• Traffic routing
• Planning a PSTN

2
Illustration of a two-way telephone circuit

Switch
Bell
Ringer

3
 4-to-2-Wire conversion

The two directions of speech circuits can be reduced down to a single circuit
carrying speech currents in both directions, using a device known as a hybrid
transformer.
Go
Go

Hybrid transformer

4-Wire circuit
4-Wire circuit

2-Wire circuit
Balance Balance

Return Return

4
 Time-sharing of functions

The need for two pairs of wires to be dedicated to ringing circuits can be totally
eliminated by exploiting the fact that ringing does not occur during the speaking
phase of a telephone call.
Handset
Handset

S
S

Telephone 1 Telephone 2

5
 The functions of a telephone exchange

Switch

A B
Off-hook Power
detector Ring Power Off-hook
current detector
Control

Exchange

6
 The sequence of events of a phone call

• The calling party removes the telephone handset; this action closes the
switchhook contact so that dc current follows through the caller’s telephone
line.
• The current, about 40 mA, is sensed at the CO and causes the CO to place a
dial-tone signal (approximately 400 Hz) on the calling party’ line.
• The calling party dials the number by using either pulse or touchtone dialing.
If pulse dialing is used, the dc line current is interrupted for the number of
times equal to the digit dialed (at a rate of 10 pulses/s). For example, there
are five interruptions of the line current when the number 5 is dialed.
• Upon reception of the complete number sequence for the called party, the CO
places the ringing generator (90 V rms, 20 Hz, on 2 s, off 4 s) on the line
corresponding to the number dialed. This rings the phone.

7
• When the called party answers, dc current flows in that line to signal the CO
to disconnect the ringing generator and to connect the two parties together via
the CO circuit switch.
• Direct current is now flowing in the lines of both the called and the calling
party, and there is a connection between the two parties via transformer
coupling.
• When either person speaks, the sound vibrations cause the resistance of the
carbon microphone element to change in synchronization with the vibrations
so that the dc line current is modulated. This produces the ac audio signal
that is coupled to the headphone of the other party’s telephone.
• The telephone system is satisfactory as long as the resistance of the
twisted-pair (双绞线) loop is 1300 Ω or less. This limits the distance that
telephones can be placed form this type of CO to about 7 miles if 22-gauge
(22号线) twisted-pair wire is used.

8
 Touchtone dialing

• Touchtone dialing is dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) signaling (belong to

User signaling).

1209 Hz 1336 Hz 1477 Hz 1633 Hz

697 Hz 1 2 3 A
770 Hz 4 5 6 B
852 Hz 7 8 9 C
941 Hz ∗ 0 # D

• Multi-frequency (MF) signaling: R2 signaling, 中国1号(belong to

inter-exchange signaling).
(belong to user signaling)

9
 A telephone network

Local exchange Junction route

Optimum

Total cost
Total network cost

Junction + exchange
+ site and building costs cost

Local loop costs

Number of exchanges
1 2 3 4 5

10
 Voice signal

• Absolute top frequency of 4 kHz

Amplitude
• The necessary Nyquist rate of
Time sampling rate of 8 kHz

Voltage
• 8-bit quantization
Speaker
Time
• 8 × 8=64kbit/s

Power

300 Hz 3,400 Hz 10,000 Hz

Frequency

11
 PCM frame formats

‘Synch. Signalling
channel’ channel
Speech channels Speech channels

Channels: 1 2 3 4 5 15 16 26 27 28 29 30

Time slots: 0 1 2 3 4 5 15 16 17 27 28 29 30 31

Frame: 125 µs
(a) 30-Channel International Standard

Frame alignment Speech channels

Channels: 1 2 3 4 5 20 21 22 23 24
Time slots: 1 2 3 4 5 20 21 22 23 24

Frame: 125 µs

12
 PCM frame formats (Cont’)

• The 30-channel PCM system actually has its frame divided equally into 32
time slots of 3.9 µs duration, each containing 8 bits, making a total frame size
of 256 bits. Time slot 0, written ‘TS0’ is used only for PCM system
management primarily to carry the frame-alignment signal, which is used by
the receiving terminal to determine the start of the frame. Time slots 1-15
carry speech channels 1-15, respectively, and time slots 17-31 carry speech
channels 16-30, respectively. Time slot 16 is normally not used for speech,
instead it is used as a bearer for signalling between exchange-control
systems-mainly, the international standard signalling system 7 (SS7). The
total rate of the 30-channel PCM system is 2,048 kbit/s, usually written as ‘2
Mbit/s’.

13
 PCM frame formats (Cont’)

• The 24-channel PCM system has its frame divided into 24 time slots of 8-bits
each, and a single bit at the front used to carry the FAS, making a total frame
size of 193 bits. If SS7 signalling needs to be carried this is placed in one of
the time slots, typically TS24, which means that such PCM systems can
support only 23 speech channels. The total rate of the 24-channel PCM
system is 1,544 kbit/s, usually written as ‘1.5 Mbit/s’.

14
 Interleaving of PCM frame

2 Mbit/s frame
2 Mbit/s frame
0 1 31
0 1 31
Higher-order
multiplex
frame 0 1 31
0 1 31
0 31 1
1
2 2
0 1 31
0 1 31
4
TDM highway 3 4
0 1 31 3 0 1 31

Frame-
Digital alignment Digital
tributaries signal tributaries

• ‘Bit’ interleaving: plesiochronous digital hierarchy (PDH)

• ‘Byte’ interleaving: synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH)

15
 PDH standard

• European • North American

Nominal Rate Actual Designation No. of 64 bit/s Nominal Rate Actual Designation No. of 64 kbit/s
(Mbit/s) Line Rate Channels (Mbit/s) Line Rate (or 56 kbit/s)
(kbit/s) (kbit/s) Channels

2 2,048 E1 30 1.5 1,544 DS1, T1 24

8 8,448 E2 120 6 6,132 DS2, T2 96
34 34,368 E3 480 45 44,736 DS3, T3 672
140 139,264 E4 1,920 274 274,176 DS4, T4 4,032
565∗ 564,148 E5∗ 7,680

∗ Not standardised.

16
 PDH core transmission network station

DDFs may also 2 Mbit/s

8/2 DDF To/from
be located here mux co-sited
. .
. . exchange
140/34 34/8 1 34/8 140/34
mux mux . . 161 mux
mux

1 4 . . 164 41

13 . . 173

1 4 16 . . 176 44
140 Mbit/s 10 140 Mbit/s
transmission transmission
systems 34 Mbit/s systems
2 Mbit/s
17 . . 177

. . 2 Mbit/s
5 20 180 45 block
8 Mbit/s
. .
DDFs may
also be
2 8 . . 48 11 located
here

17
 Economies of transmission aggregation

(a) No aggregation (b) With aggregation

A B A B

C AC + AB + AD + AE + AF C
CA + BA + DA + EA + FA
BC + BA + BD + BE + BF
CB + AB + DB + EB + FB
AD + AE + AF +BD + BE
+ BF +CD + CE + CF + DA
D + DB +DC + EA + EB +EC D
+ FA + FB + FC
E F F
E

30 Traffic routes carried

EA + EB + EC + ED + EF FA + FB + FC + FD + FE
on 15 small transmission AE + BE + CE + DE + FE AF + BF + CF + DF + EF
systems
30 Traffic routes on 5 large transmission systems

18
 Network evolution

Data
Manual Analogue automatic Digital network
networking
network era network era era
era

2-motion Semi- SPC Packet-

Manual
selector electronic digital based
switching
switching switching switching switching
Extent
of
deployment

1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

years

19
 The terminology for the exchange units in the PSTN

Class Name in USA Name in UK 中国

1 Regional Centre Trunk Exchange 大区中心局
2 Sectional Centre Trunk Exchange 省中心局
3 Primary Centre Trunk Exchange 地区中心局
4 Toll Centre Junction Tandem,Wide Area Tandem 县中心局
5 End Office Local Exchange 端局

20
 PSTN
To
foreign International
international exchange
BT’s international
exchanges
Trunk exchanges
Trunk
exchange BT’s specialised
exchange
(DMSU) exchanges
(DMSU)
Other network
Wide operators'
area exchanges
tandem

Junction
Central LE tandem
(processor
node)
Remote
Very small unit
rural _

BT (British Telecommunications), LE (Local Exchange)

21
Three ways of connecting subscriber’s lines to the network

• Subscribers are connected directly to the central local exchange (known as a

‘processor node’);
• Subscribers are connected to a remote unit, which in turn is parented onto
and controlled by the central local exchange;
• Subscribers are connected to an autonomous very small rural exchange, which
in turn is connected to the central local exchange.

22
 A call routing

Brighton (34) 01273 34XXXX

Local
exchange
{01273 34XXXX}
Haywards
01736 89YYYY Penzance Plymouth Heath
Local Trunk Trunk
exchange exchange exchange

{0127334XXXX} {0127334XXXX}
{0127334XXXX}

Dial:
34XXXX
{01273 34XXXX}
Dial:
01273 34XXXX Local
exchange

Brighton (39) 01273 39ZZZZ

{34XXXX}

23
 Numbering

International number

1–3 National significant number

digits
Country Area
Local number
code code

Exchange
Subscriber number
code

Examples of geographical numbers

London 20 7869 XXXX

24
 Local exchange switching unit

(i) (f) (j)

Other Other
exchanges exchanges
(e)
Concentrator switch
(d)
acting in
A (a) (b) (g) expansion
(c) mode
Concentrator (h)
switch
Route B
switch

Signalling and control

Local exchange switching unit

= Subscriber’s line card = Control link

25
Stored program control (SPC) switch: functional overview

Subscriber concentrator unit Route switch unit

Digital
Sub- trunks
scriber’s To
line card M Subscriber Tones other
U Route
concentrator and exchanges
X switch-
switch- Annce. block
MDF Subscriber’s block SS7
line MF
controller Sig.

Exchange-control system

MDF (Main distribution frame 主配线架), MF (Multi-frequency 双音多频)

26
 The components of a subscriber line card

Hybrid 64 kbit/s
Ringing
Test current Overload Battery Supervision Codec

Line card

2Mbit/s
Ring Over- Line-

SS SS
Test relay Signalling Encoder
voltage power
relay and trip extractor Decoder
protection feed

mux
detector

Line- 8kHz
feed
Test bus
bus
Line unit Timing
Ring
controller
bus

27
 BORSCHT functions of subscriber’s line card

• Battery (馈电): application of the 50 V DC power supply to the subscriber’s

line.
• Overload (过压保护): protection of the delicate semiconductor equipment of
the digital switch-blocks from any induced voltages on the external copper line
- it is particularly important to provide protection against lightning.
• Ringing current (振铃): provision of an interrupted electrical signal, with an
appropriate cadence, of about 75 V DC and 200 mA is required to ring a
subscribers’ set of telephone instruments.
• Supervision (监视): that is, the detection of the subscriber going off-hook to
signify call initiation, and detection of off-hook conditions in the presence of
ringing current to signify call answer.
• Codec (编译码): the A/D conversion in the Go direction and the

28
 digital-to-analogue conversion in the Return direction - A/D coding and
decoding.
• Hybrid (混合电路): 2-to-4 wire conversion from the local loop to the Go and
Return format of the switches and core transmission network.
• Test (测试): the application of electrical continuity testing at the end point of
the local loop.

29
 T-S-T switch network
b
SMA0 SMB0
TS2 0 0
a
2 a a b b
0 0
TS2 ITS7 ITS236 2 b TS2
511 511
31 31
0
0
7 2 263 2

511 511 CMB0

CMA0

SMA31 0 0 SMB31
0 0
b b 7 01 a a

TS511 ITS263 ITS7 TS511

b a
a
511 263 31 0
511

TS511 0 511 511

0
CMC0 CMC31
7 511
263 511
Input
Control
511 CMA31
511 CMB31

Sequential Write Controlled Write

Controlled Read Sequential Read

30
 Local exchange structure with RCU and PXB
Remote concentrator unit
Processor exchange

Concen-
trator
LTU LTU
MDF Other
Local Route LTU
exchanges
control switch-
block
LTU
PBX
Concen-
trator SS7

MDF

Exchange-control system
Subscriber’s line card

31
 Local exchange structure with RCU and PXB (Cont’)

• RCU (Remote concentrator units): The RCU has a small local control system
to support the concentrator switch-block and line card functions, but this has
to be supported by the main control system at the parent exchange.
• PBX (Private branch exchange): Businesses which have more than a few
telephones use a private branch exchange system, known as a PBX, to provide
call connections between each telephone and links into the PSTN. The PBX is
really a small version of the PSTN exchanges, typically ranging in sizes from
10 up to 5,000 extensions. A private numbering scheme is required to enable
extension to extension dialling, also special codes (e.g. ‘dial 9’) are
required to enable calls to be made to the PSTN.
• LTU (line termination unit): It simply needs to provide a timing interface
between the digital line and the switch-block; it does not need to perform all
the BORSCHT functions.

32
 Typical telephony traffic profile

Traffic ‘Busy Hour’

Network capacity

Monday–
Friday

Weekend
and National
Holidays

Midnight 4 am 8am noon 4pm 8pm Midnight

Time of day

33
 Traffic flow

An Erlang is defined as the average number of simultaneous calls on a system

during a one-hour period. In general, the traffic intensity of flow A, measured in
Erlangs, is given by:
A = Ch
where C is the average number of calls during the hour and h is the average
holding time of those calls. By definition, a traffic flow of one Erlang is equivalent
to a circuit being occupied for a complete hour.
There will be occasions when a system serving telephone traffic will be fully
occupied and so temporarily unable to service any more calls –a state known as
call congestion. Any calls arriving at that time will be lost (the subscriber will
have to abandon the call). The probability of this occurring is defined as the
‘Grade of Service’ (GOS), represented by the symbol ‘B’ in traffic dimensioning
formulas. Telephone exchanges are typically dimensioned to a GOS of one lost call

34
in 200, i.e. during the busy hour there is a 0.5 per cent chance that a call attempt
will meet congestion.
The name of Erlang is also associated with a formula for determining the number
of circuits required to carry a specified level of telephone call intensity at a
specified GOS –the famous ‘Erlang’s Lost Call’ or ’Erlang’s B’Formula,
Em
B(E, m) = Pm!
m Ei
i=0 i!

where B(E, m) is the probability of congestion; m is the number of circuits in a

group; A is the total amount of traffic offered in erlangs.

35
 Loading of circuits with GOS

No of Circuits Erlang Capacity with GOS

1:1000 1:500 1:200 1:100 1:50

1 0.001 0.002 0.005 0.01 0.02

5 0.76 0.90 1.13 1.36 1.66
10 3.09 3.43 3.96 4.46 5.08
20 10.11 10.79 11.86 12.8 14.0
50 32.51 33.88 35.98 37.9 40.3
100 75.24 77.47 80.91 84.1 87.6

36
 Routing traffic

Subscribers Conc- 1.5 kE 0.3 kE

entrator
1.2 kE Other
switch-
exchanges
blocks
1.4 kE Route 0.2 kE
x25 switch
-block

The total switched traffic is 1.2+0.3+0.2 = 1.7 kE. The 40,000 subscribers
originate 1.5 kE and terminate 1.4 kE in the busy hour, giving an average
both-way calling rate of 0.0725 E per line. Typical both-way calling rates are
around 0.06 E per line for residential subscribers and 0.18 E per line for business
subscribers.

37
 Factors affecting QoS

Quality of service

Support systems Transmission performance

and processes

Human
Availabilty Trafficability
factors

Maintainability Operability Reliability Vulnerability Flexibility Grade of service

Failure
Redundancy Connectivity
rate

38
 Network delay

2 Mbit/s pair cable 4.3 µs/km typical

140 Mbit/s optical fibre 4.9 µs/km typical
140 Mbit/s microwave radio link 3.3 µs/km typical
Digital multiplexor–demultiplexor 1 to 2 µs typical
Digital trunk exchange 450 µs (International recommendation)
Digital local exchange 1.5 ms (International recommendation)
Geostationary satellite 260 ms

The overall limit of acceptable end-to-end delay for a telephone call through a
PSTN is 23 ms.

39
 Apportionment of performance parameters

NTP NTP
Telecommunications network

N N
Terminal Terminal
(CPE)
T LE TE Trunk
TE LE T (CPE)
E Local Junction Junction Local E
circuit
loop loop

Elements contributing to network performance

Overall network performance

Loss 10 dB 6 dB 10 dB

Delay 8 ms 7 ms 8 ms

0.3 ms 0.1 ms 0.9 ms 4.4 ms 0.9 ms 0.1 ms 0.3 ms

40
 Loss

The overall reference equivalent (ORE, 全程参考当量) for acceptable telephone

calls is around 37 dB. Local loop: 10 dB; 4-wire digital PSTN: 6 dB Sending
reference equivalent (SRE, 发送参考当量)：10 dB receive reference equivalent
(RRE, 发送参考当量)：1 dB 20+6+1+10=37 dB

41
 Digital network error standards
Performance Definition
Parameter
Errored seconds A time period of 1 s with 1
or more errors
Severely errored A time period of 1 s with
seconds 65 or more errors
Degraded minutes A time period of 1 minute
with 5 or more errors
42
G821 Recommendation
<1.2% of 1 s intervals to
have any errors
99.935% of 1 s periods with
error ratio better than 10∧−3
98.5% of 1 minute periods
with error ratio better
than 10∧−6
 Other QoS performance parameters

• Jitter. The very-short term variation in timing.

• Wander. The medium-term variation in timing.
• Slip. Where complete PCM frames are dumped or repeated in order to
compensate for the accumulated long term differences in timing between the
node and the rest of the network.

43
 Planning a PSTN

• Stage 1 is the determination of the number of exchanges to serve and their

catchment areas.

44
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 2 is the identification of the exchange locations, which need to be as

close as possible to the center of gravity of these catchment areas so as to
serve all potential customers with minimum total subscriber-line costs.

B D

C E

45
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 3 is the estimation of the traffic flows between each of the five
exchanges, in both directions, as set out in the matrix.

46
 B D
Traffic streams

C E
A

n(n−1) = 20 traffic streams

Traffic Matrix

A B C D E
A X X X X
B X X X X
C X X X X
D X X X X
E X X X X

47
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 4 is the application of the direct versus tandem calculation to all the
traffic flows, resulting in the ’direct (d)’ or ‘tandem (t)’ decision.
B
D

C Traffic routeing matrix

A B C D E
A
Traffic routes E A d d t t
B d d t t
C d d d d
D t t d t
B
D E t t d t
C
A E

48
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 5 is the planning of the transmission network, which usually follow the
road infrastructure for practical reasons.

B D
Cable

C E
A

Road

49
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 6 is mapping the traffic network to the physical cable infrastructure

–the latter are known as the ‘engineering routes’.
Enginering routeing
of traffic routes
B
D Traffic
A–B B–C C–D D–E
routes

C
A–B/B–A X

A A–C/C–A X X
Traffic routes E

B–C/C–B X

C–D/D–C X
B
D

C C–E/E–C X X
A E

Cable routes

50
 Planning a PSTN (Cont’)

• Stage 7 determines the dimensions of the cable, engineering routes by summing

all the traffic routes over each transmission link, using the matrix of stage 6.

B
D
Required transmission link capacities
C
Link A–B = Traffic Ccts. {A–B/B–A) + (A–C/C–A)}

A Link B–C = Traffic Ccts. {(A–C/C–A) + (B–C/C–B)}

Traffic routes E
Link C–D = Traffic Ccts. {(C–D/D–C) + (C–E/E–C)}

Link D–E = Traffic Ccts. (C–E/E–C)

Ccts. = circuits
B
D

C
A E

Cable routes

51