Oda Bultum University

Institute of Technology
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
(communication Engineering)
5th year Second semester
Switching and Intelligent Networks
By: Ahmed A. (MSc)
 Chapter 2
Outline
 Circuit Switching
 Step-by-step ( Strowger )
 Crossbar
 Digital Switching
 Space-division:
 Multiple stage switching, blocking probabilities, folded four wire
switches
 Time-division: Analog Time division switching, Digital Time Division
switching.
 Review: classification of switching
system.

•Manual
•Electromechanical: Strowger (step-by-step) & Crossbar
•Electronic: stored program control (SPC) 3
 Electromechanical (Strowger Switching)
 Patented 12/March/1889 and in some places still in use today.
 First widely-used automatic exchange system.
 A wiper assembly (contact arm) moves across a fixed set of switch contacts (contact
bank).
– Each contact is connected to an outgoing channel.

Strowger
Uni-selector:
uni-selector

 Several uni-selectors can be “graded” together so multiple incoming circuits can connect to
multiple outgoing circuits.
 Electromechanical (Strowger )Switching
• In general, multiple uni-selectors, line-finders, and two-motion selectors (movable in two
planes) can be connected in series.
• These switches respond to dialled digits, automatically switching an incoming circuit to the
correct outgoing trunk.
– Step-by-step switching will respond to each digit individually.

Strowger two-motion
selector

Source:
M. P. Clark, Networks and Telecommunications Design and Operation – 2nd Edition, John
Wiley & Sons Ltd, pp. 93, 1997.
 Crossbar Switching
 Crossbar switching became popular in the 1940’s and is still used in some places today.
• Uses a simple rectangular matrix.
– Actuators are operated at incoming circuits and outgoing circuits to make metallic
contact and form the desired connection.

B
Incoming
Circuits C

1 2 3 4
Outgoing
Crossbar switch
Circuits
 Digital Exchanging (Switching)
 How do we move traffic from one part of the network to another?
 Connect end-systems to switches, and switches to each other
 Data arriving to an input port of a switch have to be moved to one or more of the
output ports.
– Moving 8-bit samples from an input port to an output port
– Recall that samples have no headers
– Destination of sample depends on time at which it arrives at the switch
• actually, relative order within a frame
• We’ll first study something simpler than a switch: a multiplexor

8
 Multiplexors and demultiplexors
 Most trunks time division multiplex voice samples
 At a central office, trunk is demultiplexed and distributed to active circuits
 Synchronous multiplexor
– N input lines
– Output runs N times as fast as input

 Demultiplexer
– one input line and N outputs that run N
times slower
– samples are placed in output buffer in
round robin order
 Time division switching
 In digital TDM systems (e.g. DS1), channels are divided by time slot, but switching is still
possible.
 Key idea: when demultiplexing, position in frame determines output trunk
 Time Division Switching
 Time division switching interchanges sample position within a frame: time slot interchange
(TSI)
 In TSI, switching is accomplished by rearranging the order in which data is read out of the
buffer.
 Incoming data enters a speech store while the outgoing channels indicate to the speech
address memory (SAM) which incoming timeslot it is assigned to.
 During each time-slot, the outgoing circuit reads the speech store slot.

TSI

D C B A D C B A D C B A C A D B C A D B C A D B
4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1
 Space division switching
• Each sample takes a different path through the switch, depending on its destination

13
 Switching Network Design
• Several Points to Consider
– Blocking versus non-blocking switches
– Number of cross-points (i.e. size of the switch)
– Reliability
– Overload
– Growth
– Cost and technology
• “Trunk Switch”
– One-to-one connection.
– One specific inlet must connect to one specific outlet.
• “Access Switch”
– One-to-any connection.
– One specific inlet must connect to any free outlet.
 Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics
• Consider a switch with a 100 x 100 interconnect function.
Example: 4x4 = 16 cross-
points
1
Need 10 000
1 1 cross-points. 2
E.g.
3
100 100
4

(a) - Full Matrix Switch 1 2 3 4

1 Need 4950
If bi-directional transmission, then cross-points.
connection from A to B is 100 E.g. n(n 1) 100  99
  4950
equivalent to a connection from B 2 2
to A (and connection from A to A
1 100
is meaningless).
(b) - Folded Matrix Switch
 Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics
 Full matrix and even folded matrix switches may be inefficient.
 A third method of achieving a 100 x 100 interconnect function is by splitting the switch into
two stages using smaller square matrices as building blocks.
– Then to form a connection, two cross-points are operated, one in each stage, but:
i. fewer cross-points needed in total
ii. we may have introduced some blocking probability
• Example: 100 x 100 in 2 stages:

1 1 1 1

10 x 10 10 x 10

10 10 10 10 How many cross-points?

(10) (10)
Each block is 10 x 10 = 100 cross-points
1 1 1 1
Each stage is 10 blocks = 1000 cross- points
10 x 10 10 x 10

10 10 10 10 Whole switch has 2 stages = 2000 cross-points

 Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics
1 1 1 1

10 x 10 10 x 10

10 10 10 10

100 Inlets (10) (10) 100 Outlets

1 1 1 1

10 x 10 10 x 10

10 10 10 10

• How does it work?

– Divide the 100 inlets into groups of 10.
– 1st outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 1st Stage 2 block.
– 2nd outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 2nd Stage 2 block.
– 3rd outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the 3rd Stage 2 block…
– ith outlet of each Stage 1 block is connected to an inlet of the ith Stage 2 block.
Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics
Example: 16x16 2-stage switch using 4x4 non-blocking full matrices:

 Using this example, we can see every path

4x4 4x4
through the switch to connect any inlet in the
1st stage to any outlet in the 2nd stage.
4x4 4x4
 Again, notice the connection pattern: The jth
outlet of the kth Stage 1 block is connected to
4x4 4x4 the kth inlet of the jth Stage 2 block.
 Using any size of n x n blocks, you can make
4x4 4x4 an n2 x n2 2-stage switch.
 We can also add a 3rd stage to the switch to
get an n3 x n3 3-stage switch
 How?
Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics
Adding a 3rd stage to a 2-stage switch:

3x3 3x3
3x3
Treat the original n2 x n2 2-stage switch as it’s own
3x3 3x3 3x3 block, attach it to n2 new blocks of n x n and use
3x3 3x3 3x3 the same connection pattern:
The jth outlet of the kth Stage 1 block is connected to
3x3 3x3 3x3
the kth inlet of the jth Stage 2 block.
3x3 3x3 3x3
Then copy the original n2 x n2 2-stage switch n
3x3 3x3 3x3 times and repeat.
How many x-pts?
3x3 3x3 3x3
27 x 27 3-stage switch: 243
3x3 3x3 3x3
27 x 27 1-stage full matrix: 729
3x3 3x3 3x3
Multi-Stage Switch Fabrics

10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x
How many x-pts?
10

(10) (10) (10) 1000 x 1000 3-stage switch: 30 000

1000 x 1000 1-stage full matrix: 1 million
10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x
10
Connection pattern used is called
distribution, and in general:
(10)
Stage n - Module k - Outlet j connects
to…
Stage n+1 - Module j - Inlet k
j
10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x 10
k

(10) (10) (10) k j

Example:
10 x 10 10 x 10 10 x 10 Stage 2 - Module 1 - Outlet 91
connects to…
Stage 3 - Module 91 - Inlet 1
 Link Blocking
• Because of the single link between each module and the modules in the next
stage, there’s a possibility of blocking.
– Consider an inlet in the 1st block of stage 1 connected to an
• outlet in the 3rd block of stage 2.
– Now what happens if we want to connect another inlet the 1st block of stage 1 to another
outlet of the 3rd block of stage 2?

A problem arises because there

4x4 4x4
is only a single route available through a switch
with only distribution-type of stages.
4x4 4x4

 Even though the entire switch is made up of non- blocking

square matrices, we can still encounter blocking.
4x4 4x4

4x4 4x4
 Estimating Blocking
• Distribution stages increase the overall inlet/outlet size of the switch but introduce increasing
probability of blocking.
– There is only a single path between any specific 1st stage inlet and any specific
final stage outlet.
– Mechanism of blockage is when an inter-stage link on required path is in use.
– The greater the number of links in the path, the greater the probability that one of them is
in use.

Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6

Link 1 Link 5
Link 2 Link 4
Link 3

Therefore, the more distribution stages we have, the greater the probability of blocking (but the
larger the total switch size is).
 Estimating Blocking
For a Pure “Distribution” switch:
• Say we have a Erlangs of traffic on an inlet, then the proportion of time it is used is also a,
and…
• Assume that all connections are random, and so the probability of any one link being
occupied is also a in any stage (if we use square blocks)
• Therefore, probability of any specific link being free is 1- a.
• But we need all links in the path to be free so probability that the path is available is (1- a)k-1.
• So, probability of blocking is:
 P(B)  1 (1 a) k 1
 Mixing Stages
• We’ve seen that we can add distribution stages to increase the switch size nk x nk (where n is
the size of each square matrix block, and k is the number of distribution stages), but…
– We need a way of reducing blocking.
• The solution is to add a mixing stage (also called collection stage) that keeps the overall
switch size the same (in terms of nk inlets and outlets), but can reduce blocking by adding
multiple paths through the switch.
nxn nxn nxn

(n) (n) (n)

nxn nxn nxn

Distribution Distribution Mixing

 Mixing Stages
• By how much does a mixing stage reduce blocking?
– Adding a mixing stage will provide n alternate paths through the switch.

Example (n = 3): 3x3 3x3 3x3

3x3 3x3 3x3

3x3 3x3 3x3

Recall that probability of blocking of

But for blocking to occur, we must
each path is:
have all n paths blocked:
P (B)  1 (1 a)k 1
path  
 Call Packing
• Analyze how blocking in a network occurs:
– There are generally free links in each stage.
– Problem is that they are mismatched from stage to stage.
• For instance:

5x5 5x5 5x5

5x5 5x5 5x5 Even though there are free

links throughout the switch,
5x5 5x5 5x5
there is a conflict for specific
links required for the brown
5x5 5x5 5x5
connection.
5x5 5x5 5x5
 Call Packing
• Call packing is a strategy of organizing new calls so that they use free links
corresponding to other busy links in the next stage if possible.

5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5

5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5

5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5

5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5

5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5 5x5

By appropriately packing the other connections, the brown connection can now
find an available path.
 Time Division Switching…
 The cross points of multistage space switches assigned to a particular connection is dedicated
to that connection for its duration. Thus the cross points can not be shared.
 Time division switching involves the sharing of cross points for shorter periods of time.
 Synchronous time-division multiplexing (TDM) allows multiple low-speed bit streams to
share a high-speed line.
 The samples are organized serially into slots (channels) to form a recurring frame of
 slots.
 During successive time slots, different I/O pairings are enabled, allowing a number of
connections to be carried over the shared bus.
 The data rate on the bus must be high enough so that the slots recur sufficiently frequently.
– For 100 full-duplex lines at 19.200 Kbps, the data rate on the bus must be greater than
1.92 Mbps.
 The source-destination pairs corresponding to all active connections are stored in the control
memory.
 STS and TST Switching

The structure of STS switching The structure of TST switching

Assignments 1: Blocking probabilities in STS and TST switching
• Implementation complexities
 Analog Time division switching, Digital Time Division switching.
 Two-dimensional Switching
End of chapter Two
Thank you