1. Define switching in light of transmission.

Switching selects the route to the desired destination that the transmitted signal travels
by the closing of switches in either the space domain or the time domain or some
combination(s) of the two.

2. Define signaling.
develops and carries the control information for switches.

3. Define calling rate and holding time.

 calling rate, or the number of times a route or traffic path is used per unit
time period; or more properly defined, “the call intensity per traffic path during the busy
hour (BH)”;
 holding time, or “the average duration of occupancy of one or more
paths by calls.” A traffic path is a “channel, time slot, frequency band, line, trunk switch,
or circuit over which individual communications pass in sequence

4. Define lost calls using the terms offered traffic and carried traffic.
 Carried traffic is the volume of traffic actually carried by a switch,
 offered traffic is the volume of traffic offered to a switch. Offered traffic minus carried
traffic equals lost calls.

5. Why are call attempts so important in the design of modern SPC switches?
call attempts is synonymous with offered traffic. Even though a call is not carried and
is turned away, the switch’s processor or computer is still exercised. In many instances
a switch’s capability to route traffic is limited by the peak number of call attempts its
processor can handle.

6. Suppose the average holding time of a call is 3.1 minutes and the calling rate in the
busy hour is 465 on a particular work day. What is the traffic flow?
A = C × T, A = 465 x 3.1 = 1,441.5/60 = 24.025 call-hours (Ch)
7. Under normal operating conditions, when can we expect blockage (of calls)?
The probability of encountering blockage is an important parameter in traffic engineering of
telecommunication systems. If congestion conditions are to be met in a telephone system, we can
expect that those conditions will usually be encountered during the BH.

8. The statistics during the BH for a particular exchange is 5 lost calls in 841 offered
calls. What is the grade of service?
Grade of service = Number of lost calls/Number of offered calls
= 5/841
= 0,0059

9. 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?
 Lost calls held (LCH)
 Lost calls cleared (LCC)
 Lost calls delayed (LCD)

10. On a probability-distribution curve, define the mean.

The mean is a point on the probabilitydistribution curve where an equal number of events occur
to the right of the point as to the left of the point. Mean is synonymous with average.

11. What percentage of events are encompassed in one standard deviation?

The standard deviation is usually expressed by the Greek letter sigma (σ).

12. What traffic formula (and resulting traffic tables) would be used for modern digital
exchanges (we assume such exchanges are SPC based)?

13. 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.
14. Define serving time when dealing with waiting systems (Erlang C).
time a call takes to be served from the moment of arrival in the queue to the moment of
being served by the switch

15. Leaving aside issues of survivability, describe how alternative routing can improve
grade of service or allow us to reduce the number of trunks on a traffic relation and
still meet grade of service objectives.
Suppose we have three serving areas, X, Y, and Z, served by three switches (exchanges), X, Y,
and Z. We find that it would require 48 Trunks to carry 34.25 erlangs of traffic during the BH to
meet that grade of service between X and Y. Suppose we reduce the number of trunks between X
and Y, still keeping the BH traffic intensity at 34.25 erlangs. We would thereby increase
efficiency on the X–Y route at the cost of reducing grade of service. With a modification of the
switch at X, we could route traffic bound for Y that met congestion on the X–Y route via switch
Z. Then Z would route that traffic on the Z–Y link.

16. Why is data traffic so different from telephone traffic?

 Data traffic usually consists of short, bursty transactions from a few milliseconds
duration
 telephone traffic as the aggregate of telephone calls over a group of circuits or trunks
with regard to the duration of calls as well as their number to several seconds, depending
on the data transmission rate

17. Distinguish between a tandem/transit switch and a local serving switch.

 A transit switch is just a tandem switch that operates in the long distance or “toll” service.
 A local switch has an area of responsibility. We call this its serving area. All subscriber
loops in a serving area connect to that switch responsible for the area
18. Why use a tandem switch in the first place?
 the tandem is eliminated for that traffic relation.
 tandem switch that operates in the long distance or “toll” service
19. What are the three basic requirements of a telephone switch?
 An exchange (a switch) must be able to connect any incoming call to one of a multitude
of outgoing circuits.
  It has the ability not only to establish and maintain (or hold) a physical connection
between a caller and the called party for the duration of the call, but also to be able to
disconnect (i.e., “clear”) it after call termination.
 It also has the ability to prevent new calls from intruding into circuits that are already in
use.

20. For a local serving switch with 10,000-line capacity, exemplify concentration ratios
(lines/trunks) for a residential area, for an industrial/office area.
a local exchange serving residential customers might have 10,000 lines, and only 1000 trunks
would be required

21. List six of the eight basic functions of a local switch.

 Interconnection
 Control
 Alerting
 Attending
 Information receiving
 Information transmitting
 Busy testing
 Supervisory

22. Give the three basic functions of a local serving switch.

 The supervision function
 the control function
 attending–alerting function.

23. In a very small town, its local serving exchange has only three-digit subscriber
numbers. Theoretically, what is the maximum number of subscribers it can serve?
5

24. How many switch banks will a step-by-step (SXS) switch have if it is to serve up
to 10,000 subscribers?
25. What happens to a line that is “busied out?”
Two forms of latching are found in crossbar practice: mechanical and electrical. The latch keeps
the speech path connection until an “on-hook” condition occurs. Once the latching occurs,
connection B4 is “busied out,”12 and the horizontal and vertical relays are freed-up to make
other connections for other calls.

26. Give at least three advantages of an SPC exchange when compared with a registermarker
crossbar exchange.
 In some exchanges, this involves a large, powerful computer.
 SPC exchanges permit numerous new service offerings, such as conference calls,
abbreviated dialing, “camp-on-busy,” call forwarding, voice mail, and call waiting.
 L

27. What are the three basic functional blocks of an SPC exchange (SPC portion only)?
 Switching matrix
 Call store (memory)
 Program store (memory)
 Central processor (computer)
28. Differentiate remote concentrators from remote switches. Give one big advantage
each provides.
 Concentrators or line concentrators consolidate subscriber loops, are remotely operated,
and are a part of the concentration and expansion portion of a switchplaced at a remote
location.
 A remote switch, sometimes called a satellite, or satellite exchange, originates and
terminates calls from the parent exchange. It differs from a concentrator in that local calls
are served by the remote switch a

29. Describe two-wire operation and four-wire operation.

 A telephone conversation inherently requires transmission in both directions. When both
directions are carried on the same pair of wires, it is called two-wire transmission.
 Carrier and radio systems require that oppositely directed portions of a single
conversation occur over separate transmission channels or paths (or use mutually
exclusive time periods). Thus we have two wires for the transmit path and two wires for
the receive path, or a total of four wires.
30. What is the function of a hybrid (transformer)?
A hybrid, in terms of telephony (at voice frequency), is a transformer with four separate
windings. Based on a simplified description, a hybrid may be viewed as a power splitter with
four sets of wire-pair connections

31. Describe the function of the balancing network as used with a hybrid.
The last pair of the four connects the hybrid to a resistance–capacitance balancing network,
which electrically balances the hybrid with the two-wire connection to the subscriber subset over
the frequency range of the balancing network. Balancing, in this context, means matching
impedances.

32. There are two new telephone network impairments we usually can blame on the
hybrid. What are they?

33. What is the balance return loss on a particular hybrid connectivity when the balancing
network is set for a 900-loop, and this particular loop has only a 300- impedance?
900+ 300
Balance return loss dB=20 log 10 = 40
900−300

34. What are the two generic methods of multiplexing?

There are essentially two generic methods of multiplexing information channels:
1. In the frequency domain; we call this frequency division multiplex (FDM).
2. In the time domain, which we call time division multiplex (TDM).

35. A mixer used in an FDM configuration has a local oscillator frequency of 64 kHz and is
based on the CCITT modulation plan. After mixing (and filtering), what is the resulting
extension of the desired frequency band (actual frequency) limits at 3 dB points)?
36. The standard CCITT supergroup consists of groups and occupies the frequency band kHz to
kHz? How many standard voice channels does it contain?
Five, there are The carrier frequencies are 420 kHz for group 1, 468 kHz for group 2, 516 kHz
for group 3, 564 kHz for group 4, and 612 kHz for group 5

37. What are pilot tones and what are their purpose in an FDM link?
 A pilot tone provides a comparatively constant amplitude reference for an automatic
gain control (AGC) circuit.
 Pilot tones are used to control level in FDM systems. They may also be used to actuate
maintenance alarms.