Chapter 12: Telecommunications

Systems

Objectives

Identify the basic elements of a telephone system,

and discuss the limitations of telephone signals
Describe the composition of the telephone industry
before and after the 1984 Modified Final Judgment,
and explain the differences
Describe the difference between a local exchange
carrier and an interexchange carrier, and list the
services each offers
2

Objectives (continued)
Differentiate between the roles of the local telephone
company before and after the Telecommunications Act of
1996
List the types of leased lines that are available and their
basic characteristics
Outline the features of ISDN, and distinguish a basic
rate interface from a primary rate interface
List the basic characteristics of frame relay, such as
permanent virtual circuits, committed information rate,
and switched virtual circuits
3

Objectives (continued)

Identify the main characteristics of Asynchronous

Transfer Mode, including the roles of the virtual path
connection and the virtual channel connection, the
importance of the classes of service available, and
ATMs advantages and disadvantages
Identify the main characteristics of digital
subscriber line, and recognize the difference between
a symmetric system and an asymmetric system
4

Introduction

Students used to go into either data communications

or voice communications
Today, the two fields are merging
Voice systems transfer computer data and data
networks support voice
Anyone studying the field of data communications
and networks must learn some basic
telecommunications too
5

The Basic Telephone System

POTS is the plain old telephone system that

connects most homes and small businesses
POTS lines were designed to transmit the human
voice, which has a bandwidth less than 4000 Hz
A telephone conversation requires two channels,
each occupying 4000 Hz
6

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

A 4000 Hz analog signal can only carry about

33,600 bits per second of information while a 4000
Hz digital signal can carry about 56,000 bits per
second
If you want to send information faster, you need a
signal with a higher frequency OR you need to
incorporate more advanced modulation techniques
POTS cannot deliver faster signals
8

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

Local loop is the telephone line that runs from the

telephone companys central office to your home or
business
Central office is the building that houses the
telephone companys switching equipment and
provides a local dial tone on your telephone
If you place a long distance call, the central office
passes your telephone call off to a long distance
provider
9

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

10

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

The country is divided into a few hundred local

access transport areas (LATAs)
If your call goes from one LATA to another, it is a
long distance call and is handled by a long distance
telephone company
If your call stays within a LATA, it is a local
distance call and is handled by a local telephone
company
11

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

A trunk is a special telephone line that runs between

central offices and other telephone company
switching centers
A trunk is usually digital, high speed, and carries
multiple telephone circuits
A trunk is typically a 4-wire circuit, while a
telephone line is a 2-wire circuit
12

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

A trunk is not associated with a single telephone

number like a line is
A telephone number consists of an area code, an
exchange, and a subscriber extension
The area code and exchange must start with the
digits 2-9 to separate them from long distance and
operator services
13

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

14

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

When the telephone company installs a line, it must

not proceed any further than 12 inches into the
building
This point is the demarcation point, or demarc

Modular connectors, such as the RJ-11, are

commonly used to interconnect telephone lines and
the telephone handset to the base
When the handset is lifted off the base (off-hook),
an off-hook signal is sent to the central office
15

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

When the off-hook signal arrives at the central

office, a dial tone is generated and returned to the
telephone
When the user hears the dial tone, they dial (or
press) the number
The central office equipment collects the dialed
digits, and proceeds to place the appropriate call
16

The Basic Telephone System (continued)

Foreign exchange service (FX) - customer calls a local

number which is then connected to a leased line to a remote
site

Wide area telecommunications services (WATS) discount volume calling to local and long distance sites

Off premises extensions (OPX) - dial tone at location B

comes from the PBX at location A

17

The Telephone Network

Before and After 1984
In 1984, the U.S. government broke up AT&T
Before then, AT&T owned a large majority of all local
telephone circuits and all the long distance service

With the Modified Final Judgment of 1984, AT&T

had to split off the local telephone companies from
the long distance company
The local telephone companies formed seven
Regional Bell Operating Companies
Today, there are only 4 left: Bell South, SBC, Qwest (US
West), and Verizon (Bell Atlantic)
18

The Telephone Network

Before and After 1984 (continued)

19

The Telephone Network

Before and After 1984 (continued)
Another result of the Modified Judgment was the
creation of the LATA (local access and transport area)
Local telephone companies became known as local exchange
carriers (LECs)
Long distance telephone companies became known as
interexchange carriers (IEC, or IXC)
Calls that remain within a LATA are intra-LATA, or local
calls
Calls that pass from one LATA to another are inter-LATA, or
long distance
20

The Telephone Network

Before and After 1984 (continued)
Before 1984, the telephone network in the U.S.
resembled a large hierarchical tree, with Class 5
offices at the bottom and Class 1 offices at the top
Users were connected to the Class 5 offices
The longer the distance of a telephone call, the further
up the tree the call progressed
Todays telephone structure is a collection of LECs,
POPs, and IECs
21

Telephone Networks after 1996

Telecommunications Act of 1996: opened up the local

telephone market to competitors

Now cable TV companies (cable telephony), long

distance telephone companies, or anyone that wanted
to start a local telephone company could offer local
telephone service
Local phone companies that existed before the Act
are known as incumbent local exchange carriers
(ILEC) while the new companies are competitive
local exchange carriers (CLEC)
22

Telephone Networks after 1996 (continued)

LECs are supposed to allow CLECs access to all
local loops and switching centers / central offices
If a local loop is damaged, the LEC is responsible for
repair
The LEC is also supposed to provide the CLEC with
a discount to the dial tone (17-20%)
LECs can also provide long distance service if they
can show there is sufficient competition at the local
service level
23

Other Players in the Market

Alternate operator services - pay phones, hotel phones
Aggregators - pulls a bunch of small companies together and
goes after phone discounts

Reseller - rents or leases variety of lines from phone

companies, then resells to customers

Specialized mobile radio carriers - mobile communication

services to businesses and individuals, including dispatch,
paging, and data services
ARDIS and RAM Mobile Data two good examples
24

PBX
Private branch exchange (PBX) - common internal
phone switching system for medium to large-sized businesses

Provides advanced intelligent features to users, such

as:
4-digit internal dialing
Special prefixes for WATS, FX, etc (private dialing
plans)
PBX intelligently decides how to route a call for lowest
cost
25

More PBX Features

Voice mail
Routes incoming calls to the best station set
(automatic call distribution)
Provides recorded messages and responds to touchtone requests (automated attendant)
Access to database storage and retrieval (interactive
voice response)
VoIP
26

PBX Components

CPU, memory, telephone lines, trunks

Switching network
Supporting logic cards
Main distribution frame
Console or switchboard
Battery back-up system
27

Automated Attendant

Plays a recorded greeting and offers a set of options

Lets the caller enter an extension directly (touch
tone or voice) and bypass an operator
Forwards the caller to a human operator if the caller
does not have a touch tone phone
Available as an option on a PBX
28

Automatic Call Distributor

Automatic Call Distributor: perhaps youve
experienced this when you call a business, are told all
operators / technicians / support staff etc. are busy, and
that your call will be answered in the order it was received

Used in systems where incoming calling volume is

large, such as customer service, help desk, order entry,
credit authorization, reservations, and catalog sales
Early systems used hunt groups
Original systems routed call to first operator in line (kept
person very busy!)
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Automatic Call Distributor (continued)

Modern systems perform more advanced functions,
such as:
Prioritize the calls
Route calls to appropriate agent based on the skill set of
the agent
If all agents busy, deliver call to waiting queue and play
appropriate message (like how long they may have to
wait)
Forward calls to another call center, or perform
automatic return call
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Interactive Voice Response

IVR is similar to AA EXCEPT:

IVR incorporates a connection to a database (on a
mainframe or server)
IVR allows caller to access and/or modify database
information
IVR can also perform fax on demand

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Interactive Voice Response (continued)

Common examples of IVR include:

Calling your bank to inquire about an account balance
University online registration system
Brokerage firm taking routine orders from investors
Investment fund taking routine requests for new account
applications
A company providing employees with info about their
benefit plans
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Key Telephone System

Used within a small office or a branch office, a key

telephone system (KTS) is an on-premise resource
sharing device similar to a PBX
For example, a key system might distribute 48
internal telephone sets over 16 external phone lines
The business would pay for the 16 individual lines but
have 48 telephone sets operating

User selects outside line by pressing corresponding

line button on key set (phone)
33

Leased Line Services

Most home computer users use POTS lines and
conventional modems to connect to other computer
systems
What if you need a faster service, or need one that is
always on?
You can get a leased line service

A basic leased line, or tie line, gives you a 56 kbps

data transfer rate
T-1 (or T1) service provides 1.544 Mbps rate
Used by businesses to connect their in-house telephone
systems (PBX) and data networks to the outside world
34

T-1 Service
A T-1 service is a digital, synchronous TDM stream
used by businesses and telephone companies
A T-1 service is always on and always transmitting
One T-1 service can support up to 24 simultaneous
channels
These channels can be either voice or data (PBX support)

A T-1 service can also be provisioned as a single

channel delivering 1.544 Mbps of data (LAN to ISP
connection)
35

T-1 Service (continued)

A T-1 service requires 4 wires, as opposed to a 2wire telephone line

A T-1 can be either intra-LATA (local) which costs
roughly $350-$400 per month, or inter-LATA (long
distance) which can cost thousands of dollars per
month (usually based on distance)
A customer may also be able to order a T-1 or a
T-1
36

T-1 Service (continued)

T-1constantly transmits frames (8000 frames per second)
Each frame consists of one byte from each of the 24
channels, plus 1 sync bit (8 * 24 + 1 = 193 bits)
8000 frames per second * 193 bits per frame = 1.544
Mbps
If a channel is used for voice, each byte is one byte of
PCM-encoded voice
If a channel is used for data, each byte contains 7 bits of
data and 1 bit of control information (7 * 8000 = 56 kbps)
37

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)

ISDN is another leased service that provides a

digital telephone or data connection into a home or
business
With ISDN you can have a digital telephone line
and a 64 kbps data line, or one 128 kbps data line
The basic rate interface (BRI) is the service for
homes and small businesses, while the primary rate
interface (PRI) is the service for larger businesses
38

ISDN (continued)
BRI ISDN consists of two B channels and one D
channel
A B channel can carry 64 kbps of data or PCM-encoded
voice
The D channel is 16 kbps and carries signaling
information
The B channels are dialable, and the D channel can be
always on
Many users combine both B channels for a 128 kbps
data channel
39

ISDN (continued)

PRI ISDN is used by larger businesses and contains

23 B channels and one 64 kbps D channel
PRI ISDN is essentially equivalent to a T-1, but
with ISDN, the 23 channels are dialable!
The appropriate ISDN modems / multiplexors are
necessary to support this service
What could you use an always-on D channel for?
40

Frame Relay
Frame relay is the leased service that can provide a
high-speed connection for data transfer between two
points either locally or over long distances
A business only has to connect itself to the local
frame relay port
Hopefully this connection is a local telephone call

Once the data reaches the local frame relay port, the
frame relay network, or cloud, transmits the data to
the other side
41

Frame Relay (continued)

42

Frame Relay (continued)

A connection between two endpoints is called a
permanent virtual circuit (PVC)
PVCs are created by the provider of the frame relay
service
User uses a high-speed telephone line to connect its
company to a port, which is the entryway to the frame
relay network
The high-speed line, the port, and the PVC should all
be chosen to support a desired transmission speed
43

Frame Relay (continued)

44

Frame Relay (continued)

Consider a company that has four office locations

and currently has six leased lines interconnecting the
four locations
To install frame relay, the company would ask for
six PVCs in place of the six leased lines
The company would also need four high-speed
telephone lines and four ports connecting the four
locations to the frame relay cloud
45

Frame Relay Setup

46

Frame Relay Setup (continued)

47

Committed Information Rate (CIR)

The user and frame relay service would agree upon

a committed information rate (CIR)
CIR states that if the customer stays within a
specified data rate (standard rate plus a burst rate),
the frame relay provider will guarantee delivery of
99.99% of the frames
The burst rate cannot be exceeded for longer than 2
seconds
48

CIR (continued)
Example: If a company agrees to a CIR of 512 kbps with a
burst rate of 256 kbps, the company must stay at or below 512
kbps, with an occasional burst up to 768 kbps, as long as the
burst does not last longer than 2 seconds

If the company maintains their end of the agreement,

the carrier will provide something like 99.99%
throughput and a network delay of no longer than 20
ms
If the customer exceeds its CIR, and the network
becomes congested, the customers frames may be
discarded
49

Frame Relay vs. the Internet

Frame relay has many advantages over the Internet,

including guaranteed throughput and minimum delay
as well as better security
Internet has the advantage of being practically
everywhere
Cheaper and simpler to create connections (no PVCs
necessary)
Internet tunnels (VPNs) are also attractive
50

Voice over Frame Relay (VoFR)

Frame relay is also capable of supporting voice

communications
High transfer speeds adequately support the needs of
interactive voice

If a company requires multiple voice circuits, frame

relay is an interesting solution

51

Frame Relay Switched Virtual Circuits

Frame relay can also provide switched virtual

circuits (SVC)
An SVC can be created dynamically by the
customer
Good for short-term connections, but more
expensive
52

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

Asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a very
high speed packet delivery service, similar in a
number of ways to frame relay

Both send packets of data over high speed lines

Both require a user to create a circuit with a provider

One noticeable difference between ATM and

frame relay is speed

ATM is capable of speeds up to 622 Mbps while

frame relays maximum is typically 45 Mbps
53

ATM (continued)
Similar to frame relay, data travels over a
connection called a virtual channel connection
(VCC)
To better manage VCCs, a VCC must travel over a
virtual path connection (VPC)
One of ATMs strengths (besides its high speeds) is
its ability to offer various classes of service
If a company requires a high-speed, continuous
connection, they might consider a constant bit rate
service
54

ATM (continued)
Variable Bit Rate (VBR): less demanding service
Can also support real time applications (rt-VBR), as well
as non-real time applications (nrt-VBR), but does not
demand a constant bit stream

Available bit rate (ABR): used for bursty traffic that does
not need to be transmitted immediately
ABR traffic may be held up until a transmission opening
is available

Unspecified bit rate (UBR): for lower rate traffic that

may get held up, and may even be discarded part way through
transmission if congestion occurs
55

Advantages and Disadvantages of ATM

Advantages of ATM include very high speeds and

different classes of service

Disadvantages include potentially higher costs (both

equipment and support) and a higher level of
complexity

56

Digital Subscriber Line

Digital subscriber line (DSL) is a relative newcomer

to the field of leased line services
DSL can provide very high data transfer rates over
standard telephone lines
Unfortunately, less than half the telephone lines in
the U.S. are incapable of supporting DSL
There has to be a DSL provider in your region
57

DSL (continued)

DSL, depending on the type of service, is capable of

transmission speeds from 100s of kilobits into singledigit megabits
Because DSL is highly dependent upon noise levels,
a subscriber cannot be any more than 5.5 kilometers
(2-3 miles) from the DSL central office
Service can be symmetric, in which downstream and
upstream speeds are identical, or asymmetric in which
downstream speed is faster than upstream speed
58

DSL (continued)
A DSL service often connects a user to the Internet
A DSL service can also provide a regular telephone
service (POTS)
The DSL provider uses a DSL access multiplexer
(DSLAM) to split off the individual DSL lines into
homes and businesses
A user then needs a splitter to separate the POTS line
from the DSL line, and then a DSL modem to convert
the DSL signals into a form recognized by the computer
59

DSL (continued)

60

DSL (continued)

A DSL service comes in many different forms:

ADSL - Asymmetric DSL
CDSL - Consumer DSL (trademarked version by
Rockwell)
DSL.Lite - Slower form than ADSL
HDSL - High-bit rate DSL
RADSL - Rate adaptive DSL (speed varies depending
on noise level)
61

DSL (continued)

62

Computer Telephony Integration

Computer telephony integration (CTI): emerging field
that combines more traditional voice networks with modern
computer networks

Consider a system in which a customer calls a

customer support number:
Customers telephone number appears on customer support
reps terminal and immediately pulls up customers data
Rep answers phone by clicking on an icon on the screen and
helps the customer
Rep transfers the call by clicking on another icon on the
computer screen
63

Computer Telephony Integration

(continued)
CTI can also integrate voice cabling with data
cabling
PBX talks directly to the LAN server
PBX can direct the LAN server to provide a telephone
operation to the user through the users computer

Telephones may still be connected to the PBX or

they may be connected to the LAN via the LAN
wiring
64

Computer-Telephony Integration (CTI)

CTI applications could include the following:

*Unified messaging

*Third party call control

*Interactive voice response

*PBX Graphic User Interface

*Integrated voice recognition

and response

*Call filtering

*Fax processing and fax-back

*Customized menuing systems

*Text-to-speech and speech-to-text conversions

65

Telecommunication Systems in Action: A

Company Makes a Service Choice
Better Box Corporation has offices in Seattle, San
Francisco, and Dallas, with headquarters in Chicago
Better Box wants to connect Chicago to each of the
other three offices
Better Box needs to download 400 kbyte files in 20
seconds
Requires a transmission speed of 160,000 bps

Better Box could use three separate T-1 lines, use a

frame relay service, or use asynchronous transfer
mode
66

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice

67

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice

68

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice
Better Box Corporation might also consider dial-up
access lines, ISDN BRI service, and leased 56k lines
Dial-up, ISDN BRI, and leased 56k lines will not
meet the companys requirements for a 160 kbps
download
Typical various prices for these services are shown
on the next table
69

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice
To provide T-1 service to all four offices:
Seattle to Chicago: $6325 ($1200 + $2.50 per mile)
San Francisco to Chicago: $6625
Dallas to Chicago: $3500
Total interLATA T-1 costs = $16,450 / month

70

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice
To provide frame relay service:
Three ports at 256K = 3 x $495
One port at 768K = $1240
Three 256K PVCs = 3 x $230
Four intraLATA T-1s = 4 x $350
Total charge = $4815 / month
71

Telecommunications Systems in Action:

A Company Makes a Service Choice
To provide asynchronous transfer mode service:
Four ports at 1.544 Mbps ABR = 4 x $1750
Three channels = 3 x $250
Three paths = $2 per mile x 5140 miles = $10,280
Four intraLATA T-1s = 4 x $350
Total ATM charges = $19,430 / month
72

Summary
Telephone system
1984 Modified Final Judgment
Local exchange carrier vs. interexchange carrier
Telecommunications Act of 1996
Leased lines
ISDN and basic rate interface vs. primary rate interface
Frame relay
Asynchronous Transfer Mode
Digital subscriber line and symmetric vs. asymmetric system
73