Rey G. Bernardino Jr.

Q360 Communication System and Design

Assignment:

16-1. Define the terms Communications and Telecommunications.

Answer: Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place, person or group to
another. Every communication involves (at least) one sender, a message and a recipient. ... These
include our emotions, the cultural situation, the medium used to communicate, and even our location.
While Telecommunication is the exchange of signs, signals, messages, words, writings, images and
sounds or information of any nature by wire, radio, optical or other electromagnetic
systems. Telecommunication occurs when the exchange of information between communication
participants includes the use of technology.

16-2. Define plain old telephone service.

Answer: Plain old telephone service (POTS) is an analog telephone service implemented over copper

twisted pair wires and based on the Bell Telephone system. This system connects homes and businesses
to neighborhood central offices. A central office is ultimately connected to other offices and a long
distance facility.

16-3. Describe a Local Subscriber loop.

Answer: the local subscriber loop (or simply local loop). A local loop is simply an unshielded twisted -
pair transmission line (cable pair), consisting of two insulated conductors twisted together. The
subscriber loop provides the means to connect a telephone set at a subscriber location to the closest
telephone office, which is commonly called an end office, locale change office, or central office.

16-4. Where in a telephone system is the local loop?

Answer: In a telephone system, the local loop is a two-wire connection between the subscriber's house
and the end office of the telephone company. It is commonly referred to as the “last mile” of
the telephone network.

16-5. Briefly describe the basic functions of a standard telephone set.

Answer:

1. Notify the subscriber when there is an incoming call with an audible signal, such as a bell, or
with a visible signal, such as flashing light. This signal is analogous to an interrupt signal on a
microprocessor, as its intent is to interrupt what you are doing.
2. Provide signal to the telephone network verifying when the incoming call has been acknowledge
and answered.
3. Convert speech energy to electrical energy in the transmitter and vice versa in the receiver.
4. Incorporate some method of inputting and sending destination telephone numbers from the
telephone set to the central office switch over the local loop.
5. Regulate the amplitude of the speech signal the calling person outputs onto the telephone line .
6. Incorporate some means of notifying the telephone office when a subscriber wishes to place an
outgoing call. Subscribers cannot dial out unil they receive a dial tone from the switching
machine.
7. Ensure that the small amount of the transmit signal is fed back to the speaker, enabling talkers
to hear themselves speaking.
8. Provide an open circuitto the local loop when the telephone is not in use and closed circuit to
the loop when the telephone is in use.
9. Provide a means of transmitting and receiving call signals between the central office switch and
subscriber, such as on and off, busy, ringing, dial pulses, touch-tone signal and dial tone.

16-6. What is the purpose of RJ-11 connector?

Answer: The RJ11 connector is used for plugging in telephone handsets to wall receptacles, and is
commonly used for this purpose in many countries around the world. RJ11 connectors are also use
with modems.

16-7. What Is meant by the terms tip and ring?

Answer: Tip and ring are the names of the two conductors or sides of a telephone line.
The terms originate in reference to the telephone plugs used for connecting telephone calls in
manual switchboards. When inserted into a jack, the plug's tip conductor connects first, followed by
the ring conductor.

16-8. List and briefly describe the essential components of a standard telephone set.

Answer Ringer circuit: The ringer circuit, which was originally an electromagnetic bell, is placed
directly across the tip and ring of the local loop and its sole purpose is to alert the destination party
of incoming calls. The tone of the ringer should be loud enough to be heard from a distance. In
modern telephones, the bell has been replaced with and electronic oscillator connected to the
speaker. Today, ringing signals can be of any imaginary sound.

On/off hook circuit: The on/off hook circuit (sometimes called a switch hook) is nothing more than a
simple single-throw double-pole (STDP) switch placed across the tip and ring. The switch is
mechanically connected to the telephone handset so that when the telephone is idle (on hook), the
switch is open. When the telephone is in use (off hook), the switch is closed, completing an electrical
path through the microphone between the tip and ring of the local loop.

Equalizer circuit: Equalizers are combinations of passive components (resistors, capacitors, and so
on) that are used to regulate the amplitude and frequency response of the voice signals. The
equalizer helps solve an important transmission problem in telephone set design, namely, the
interdependence of the transmitting and receiving efficiencies and the wide range of transmitter
currents caused by a variety of local loop cables with different dc resistances.

Speaker: The speaker is the receiver for the telephone. The speaker converts electrical signals
received from the local loop to acoustical signals (sound waves) that can be heard and understood
by a human being. The speaker is connected to the local loop through the hybrid network. The
speaker is typically enclosed in the handset of the telephone along with the microphone.
 Microphone: The microphone is the transmitter for the telephone and it converts acoustical signals
in the form of sound pressure waves from the caller to electrical signals that are transmitted into the
telephone network through the local subscriber loop. The microphone is also connected to the local
loop through the hybrid network. Both the microphone and the speaker are transducers, as they
convert one form of energy into another form of energy. A microphone converts acoustical F energy
first to mechanical energy and then to electrical energy, while the speaker performs the exact
opposite sequence of conversions

Hybrid network: The hybrid network (sometimes called a hybrid coil or duplex coil) in a telephone
set is a special balanced transformer used to convert a two-wire circuit (the local loop) into a four-
wire circuit (the telephone set) and vice versa, thus enabling full-duplex operation over a two-wire
circuit. In essence, the hybrid network separates the transmitted signals from the received signals.
Another function of the hybrid network is to allow a small portion of the transmit signal to be
returned to the receiver in the form of a sidetone.

Dialing circuit: The dialling circuit enables the subscriber to output signals representing digits, and
this enables the caller to enter the destination telephone number. The dialling circuit could be a
rotary dialer, or most likely an electronic dial-pulsing circuit (or a Touch-Tone keypad) which sends
various combinations of tones representing the called digits.

16-9. Briefly describe the steps involved in completing a local telephone call.

Answer: the steps in completing a local telephone call are as follows:

 Initially calling party goes in off hook condition.

 Once the DC current flows into the loop,the switching machine sends a dial tone to the calling
party in order to make sure that it access to the switching machine.
 Now the caller starts dialing the destination telephone number either by rotary dialer or touch
tone keypad.
 The switching machine will locate the corresponding local loop for the destination number.
 After locating,the switching machine will check for on hook or off hook condition of the
destination subscriber soas to make dc current to flow.Simultaneously the switching machine
provide a signal path through it for the two local loops.
 The switching machine sends a busy dial tone to the called subscriber when the destination
party is off hook.
 If the destination part is off hook when the destination party answers to the call and completes
the loop.
 When the destination party answers the called party,DC current flows through the loop.The flow
of DC current through the loop indicates the switching machine that destination party answered the
call.As a result,the switching machine remove the ringing and ring back signals.
 If both stations are on hook,switching machine recognizes on open circuit on that loop and
drops the connection through the switching machine.

16-10. Explain the basic purpose of call progress tones and signal.
Answer: In telephony, call progress tones are audible tones that provide an indication of the status of
a telephone call to the user. The tones are generated by a central office or a private branch
exchange (PBX) to the calling party.

16-11. List and describe the two primary categories of signaling.

Answer:

In-channel Signaling-This type of signaling is used to carry voice or data and pass control signals related
to a call or connection. There are different types of In-channel Signaling, as seen in the above figure. The
D.C. signaling is simple, cheap and reliable even for unamplified audio circuits. However, for amplified
audio circuits, low frequency A.C. signaling may be adopted.

Common Channel Signaling

Common Channel Signaling uses a separate common channel for passing control signals for a group of
trunks or information paths as it does not use the speech or the data path for signaling. The common
channel signaling consists of two types of nodes such as Signaling Transfer Points (STP) and Signaling
Points (SP).

16-12. Describe the following signalling messages: alerting, supervising, controlling and addressing.

Answer:     

 Supervising - monitoring the status of a line or circuit to determine if it is busy, idle, or is

requesting service.
 Alerting - indicates to the addressee the arrival of an incoming call; audible bells and tones or
visual lights.
 Controlling - Signaling process of transferring control information such as address, call
supervision, or other connection information between communication equipment and other
equipment or systems. 
  Addressing - the process of transmitting route and destination signals over the network; such as
dial pulses, tone pulses, or data pulses over loops, trunks, and signaling networks.

16-13. What are the purpose of dial tone,and when is it applied to a telephone circuit?

Answer: Dial Tone - A dial tone is modulating tone that signals an available line. The purpose of a dial
tone is to indicate that the phone is functional and ready to make a call. The dial tone, of course, stops
when the call begins. In the context of SMB and enterprise phones, “delivering dial tone” means that
every phone can make and receive calls.
16-14 Briefly describe dual-tone multifrequency and multifrequency signalling and tell where they are
used.

Answer: Dual-tone multifrequency (DTMF) is a method used to dial telephone numbers or to issue
commands to switching systems. DTMF is widely used for telecommunication signaling between
telephone handsets and switching centers over analog telephone lines in voice-frequency bands.

 multi-frequency signaling (MF) is a type of signaling that was introduced by the Bell

System after World War II. It uses a combination of audible tones for address (telephone number)
transport and supervision signaling on trunk lines between central offices. The signaling is sent in-
band over the same channel as the bearer channel used for voice traffic.

16-15. Describe dial pulsing.

Answer: Pulsing in which a direct-current pulse train is produced by interrupting a

steady signal according to a fixed or formatted code for each digit and at a standard pulse repetition
rate. Note: Dial pulsing originated with rotary mechanical devices integrated
into telephone instruments, for the purpose of signaling. Subsequent applications use electronic circuits
to generate dial pulses. Synonym pulsing.

16-16. what is the difference between station busy signal and an equipment busy signal?

Answer: A station busy signal is sent from the switching machine back to the calling stationwhwnwver
the called telephone number is off hook. The station busy signal is two-tone signal comprised of 480Hz
and 620Hz. While the equipment busy signal is sent from the switching machine back to the calling
station whenever the system cannot complete the call because of equipment unavailability. this
condition is called blocking and occurs whenever the system is overload and more calls are being placed
than can be completed.

16-17. what is the difference between ringing signal and a ringback signal?

Answer: The the ringing signal is to ring the bell in the telephone set to alert thr subscriber that there is
an incoming call. While the ring back signal is sent back to the calling party at the same time the ringin
signal is sent to the called party.

16-18. Briefly describe what happens when a telephone set is taken off hook.

Answer: Off-hook describes a state that a phone currently is in when the phone is taken off the hook or

placed in the off-hook position. Off-hook causes the phone line to be busy and allows the user to
place phone calls or answer incoming calls.

16-19. Describe the differences between the operation of a cordless telephone and a standard
telephone?

Answer: A cordless telephone or portable telephone is a telephone in which the handset is portable but
able to be used like landline phone communication, only it operates by radio frequency transmission
and not a physical insulated wire, or telephone line.The standard telephones is just the same but
directly connected to each part.

16-20. Explain how caller ID operates and when it is used?

Answer: Caller ID is a display of information, including the caller’s number and sometimes the name,
that shows up on any Caller ID enabled device. The service is included with just about any phone
service, be it landline, VOIP, or mobile.

Caller ID helps identify the calling party by displaying a phone number, and when available, a name. This
information comes from different places. Names are determined by the receiving party’s carrier.
Numbers are determined by the caller’s carrier, or in some cases, directly by the caller or the software
they use to place calls.

16-21.Briefly describe how a paging system operates.

Answer: paging system transmits messages to one or more pagers, but a message can only be received
by the pager that the message is intended for. Each pager has a specific address and each message is
addressed to one or more specific pagers.