Electronic Switching

Unit -1

Evolution of Switching systems

Content Overview
Evolution of Switching systems
 Message Switching
Circuits switching
Functions of a switching system
Crossbar switch
General Trunking system
Electronic switching
Reed electronic system
 Digital switching systems.
Evolution of Switching systems

The switching system is a collection of switching elements

arranged and controlled in such a way as to setup a communication
path between any two distant points.

 By the early 1800’s scientists had developed ways to generate and

transmit electricity.

 1819, oersted discovered the relation between magnetism and

electricity.

 Ampere, Faraday and others continued this work in 1820. In 1834,

Gauss and Weber wired over the roofs of Gottingen to make a
telegraph system.

 Samuel F.B. Morse’s developed the first significant work in

telecommunication. F.B.
 Morse developed code telegraphy in 1837. In 1844, a 40 mile
telegraph line was setup between Baltimore and Washington by
F.B. Morse. In 1845, Morse formed a telegraph company based on
his technology.

 In 1849, the first slow telegraph printer link was setup. In 1874,
Ban dot Introduction to Switching Systems 3 invented a
‘‘Multiplexes” system which enables up to six signal from
telegraph machines to be transmitted together over the same
line.

 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.

Switching Networks
 Long distance transmission is typically done over a network of
switched nodes.

 Nodes not concerned with content of data.

 End devices are stations Computer, terminal, phone, etc.

 A collection of nodes and connections is a communications network

Data routed by being switched from node to node.
Nodes
 Nodes may connect to other nodes only, or to stations and other
nodes
 Node to node links usually multiplexed
 Network is usually partially connected
 Some redundant connections are desirable for reliability
 Two different switching technologies
Circuit switching
Packet switching
Simple Switched Network
Circuit Switching
 Dedicated communication path between two stations
 Three phases
Establish
Transfer
Disconnect
 Must have switching capacity and channel capacity to establish
connection
 Must have intelligence to work out routing
Circuit Switching - Applications

 Inefficient
 Channel capacity dedicated for duration of connection
 If no data, capacity wasted
 Set up (connection) takes time
 Once connected, transfer is transparent
 Developed for voice traffic (phone)
Public Circuit Switched
Network
Telecomms Components
 Subscriber
 Devices attached to network
 Subscriber line
 Local Loop
 Subscriber loop
 Connection to network
 Few km up to few tens of km
 Exchange
 Switching centers
 End office - supports subscribers
 Trunks
 Branches between exchanges
 Multiplexed
Circuit Establishment
Traditional Circuit Switching
Soft switch
Packet Switching Principles
 Circuit switching designed for voice
 Resources dedicated to a particular call
 Much of the time a data connection is idle
 Data rate is fixed
 Both ends must operate at the same rate
Basic Operation
 Data transmitted in small packets
 Typically 1000 octets
 Longer messages split into series of packets
 Each packet contains a portion of user data plus some control
info
 Control info
 Routing (addressing) info
 Packets are received, stored briefly (buffered) and past on to the
next node
 Store and forward
Use of Packets
Advantages
 Line efficiency
 Single node to node link can be shared by many packets over
time
 Packets queued and transmitted as fast as possible
 Data rate conversion
 Each station connects to the local node at its own speed
 Nodes buffer data if required to equalize rates
 Packets are accepted even when network is busy
 Delivery may slow down
 Priorities can be used
Switching Technique
 Station breaks long message into packets
 Packets sent one at a time to the network

 Packets handled in two ways

 Datagram
 Virtual circuit
Datagram
 Each packet treated independently
 Packets can take any practical route
 Packets may arrive out of order
 Packets may go missing
 Up to receiver to re-order packets and recover from missing packets
Datagram
Diagram
Virtual Circuit
 Preplanned route established before any packets sent
 Call request and call accept packets establish connection
(handshake)
 Each packet contains a virtual circuit identifier instead of
destination address
 No routing decisions required for each packet
 Clear request to drop circuit
 Not a dedicated path
Virtual
Circuit
Diagram
Virtual Circuits v Datagram
 Virtual circuits
 Network can provide sequencing and error control
 Packets are forwarded more quickly
 No routing decisions to make
 Less reliable
 Loss of a node looses all circuits through that node
 Datagram
 No call setup phase
 Better if few packets
 More flexible
 Routing can be used to avoid congested parts of the network
Circuit v Packet Switching
 Performance

 Propagation delay
 Transmission time
 Node delay
Comparison between Message and
Circuit switching
Switching system

 In early days, the human exchange provided switching facilities.

 In manual exchanges, a human operator and the elements like
switches, plugs and sacks were used to connect two subscribers.
 Around 1890’s many electromechanical switching devices were
introduced.
 Till 1940, different electromechanical switching system were
invented, of which strowger switching system and cross bar
switching system were still popular.
Classification of Switching System

Switching systems Classification

 Manual
 Automatic
 Electromechanical
 Electronic
Functions of Switching System

The switching office performs the following basic functions

irrespective of the system whether it is a manual or
electromechanical or electronic switching system.

 Identity: The local switching center must react to a calling signal

from calling subscriber and must be able to receive information to
identify the required destination terminal seize.
 Addressing : The switching system must be able to identify the
called subscriber from the input information (train of pulses or
multiple frequency depends on the dialing facility).The address may
be in same local centre or some other exchange. If the terminal or
trunk group is busy, a suitable signal must be returned to the calling
subscriber. If more than one free circuit, particular one will be
selected.
 Busy testing : If number dialled by the calling subscriber is
wrong or the called subscriber is busy (not attending the
phone) or the terminal may be free (lifting the phone) but no
response (not willing to talk or children handling), a switching
system has to pass a corresponding voice message or busy
tone after waiting for some time (status).

 Finding and path setup : Once the calling subscriber

destination is identified and the called subscriber is available,
an accept signal is passed to the switching system and calling
subscriber. Based on the availability, suitable path will be
selected.
 Supervision. Once the path is setup between calling and called
subscriber, it should be supervised in order to detect answer
and clear down conditions and recording billing information.
 Clear down : When the established call is completed, the path
setup should be disconnected. If the calling subscriber keeps
the phone down first, the signal called clear forward is passed
to the switching system. If the called subscriber keeps the
phone down first, a signal called clear backward signal is
passed to the switching system. By clear signal, the switching
system must disconnect the path setup between calling and
called subscriber.

 Billing : A switching system should have a mechanism to meter

to count the number of units made during the conversation.
The cumulative number of units made for a particular duration
by the calling subscriber is calculated. This information and if
any should be sent to the called subscriber.
 Manual Switching System
 In the manual exchange (until 1892), the control was provided by a
human operator and the elements of the switch assemblies are
plugs and jacks.

 Limitations of manual exchanges :

 Language dependent. The operation of a human exchange is

language dependent as the subscriber needs to communicate with
the operator. In multilingual areas (big towns, cities and tourist
spots). This language dependency poses severe problems.

 Lack of privacy. As a human operator is involving in connecting two

subscribers, he or she may be willing to hear the conversation of
two VIP’s or record the message. So in human exchanges, privacy is
not possible.
 Switching delay. Before setting a path between two subscriber, the
operator has to monitor various signalling and if the operator is not
active, the delay in switching will be high normally it takes minutes
to setup a call or release a call.
 Limited service. An exchange can provide service only to minimum
number of subscriber. If the subscriber rate increases, overload and
thus congestion are not unexpected.
 To avoid congestion, more hardware should be duplicated and more
human operator is necessary. These all will results in large
overhead for the exchange.
 Several electromechanical switching system were developed
around 1880–1890 to eliminate the limitations of manual exchanges
and to establish automatic exchanges to improve the speed and
carry more leads (subscribers). Among those electromechanical
automatic switches, strowger’s step by step switching system was
the most pupular.

Basic Elements of Strowger Switching System

There are two types of basic elements which performs most of the
functions of the strowger switching system.

(a) Uniselectors and

(b) Two motion selectors.
Strowger Swtiching System
Two motion switches
Block Diagram of switching System
In general, the strowger switching system consists of subscriber’s line
circuit, line finder & alloter circuit, Group selector and final selector.
Routing of Call in Step by step
switching system
 Routing of Call in Step by step
switching system
 Subscriber line circuit (SLC): Every subscriber is connected to his
local exchange by one pair of wires. This single pair carries the
voice in both directions and the ring current to ring the bell when a
call is received. At the exchange, every subscriber line terminates
into its own subscriber line circuit (SLC). This consists of a pair of
relays dedicated to that subscriber. If there are 1000 subscriber on
that exchange, then there are 1000 SLCs.

 Line Finder & Alloter: As there are many subscribers, but only a few
selectors, there has to be a method for finding a free selector and to
connect the calling subscriber to that free.

 Group Selector :Depends on the subscriber number, the group

selector may comprise one or two selectros, generally referred as
first and second selectors. For 3 digit number, only one selector is
required. For a 4 digit number, two selectors are required.
Crossbar switch
The unique features of the crossbar switches are

(i) Common control allows the customer and the switch to share the
common equipments used to process the call.

(ii) Wire logic computer allows specific routine functions of call

processing to be hardwired into the switch.

(iii) Flexible concentration ratios allows the system designer to select

the appropriate ratio for a specific switch based on customer mix in
a specific location.
Crossbar switch
 Basic of SPC

 In SPC, a programe or a set of instructions are stored in its memory

and executed automatically one by one by the processor. Carrying
out the exchange control functions through programs stored in the
memory of a computer led to the name stored program control. A
computer can be programmed to test the conditions of the inputs
and last states and decide on new outputs and states.

 The SPC uses processors designed to meet the various

requirements of the exchange.More than one processors are used
for the reliability. Normally these processors are duplicated.Also the
SPC system uses distributed software and hardware architectures.
To carry over the maintenance functions of the switching system, a
separate processor is used.
Centralized SPC
 Early electronic switching systems are centralised SPC exchanges
and used a single processor to perform the exchange functions.
Presently centralised exchanges uses dual processor forhigh
reliability. All the control equipments are replaced by the
processors. A dual processor architecture may be configured to
operate in

(a) stand by mode

(b) synchronous duplex mode
(c) Load sharing mode.
ReedRelay
 Reed Relay
 In basic reed relay, the contacts are plated on the ends of
overlapping centilevered magnetic strips or reeds which serve as
contact springs.
 The reeds, contacts and air gap are enclosed in a glass envelop to
obtain the benefits of a relatively corrosion free atmosphere for
 contact operation.
 The enclosed reeds are wound by the control winding for the
magnetic flux.
 The reeds are magnetized by the flux and are pulled together to
close the air gap at the plated contacts.
 This closes the external circuit path connected to the activated
reeds. When a demagnetising current is applied to one or the other
of the coils, the contacts open.
General view of TXE 4
Digital switching System
 A switching system is called digital when the input to and output
from the switching system can directly support digital signal. Many
basic elements of the digital switching system and its operation are
very similar to the stored program control (SPC) switching system.

 The functions of the digital switching network is to connect pairs of

channels. So that information arriving at the switching centre in a
particular channel on one PCM multiplex system can be passed to
some other channel on an outgoing PCM multiplex systems. To
achieve this switching, two processes referred to as time switching
and space switching are used.
Digital switching System