INTI INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE PENANG

SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

(SOEAT)

EGE 2108

Telephony and Switching Systems

ASSIGNMENT 1

Name: Hamzah Naser Mahmood

Instructor: Miss Lim Ching Ching

1 1-
& 2 - Describe/Explain Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and discussing the technology
in PSTN.

The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the network of the world's public
circuit-switched telephone networks. It is a worldwide network of telephone lines,
fiber-optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications
satellites, and undersea telephone cables connected by switching centers, PSTN are
unrestricted dialing telephone networks that are available for public use to
interconnect communications devices and that means the combination of the
interconnected networks and the single numbering plan allow any telephone in the
world to communicate with any other. Originally a network of fixed-line analog
telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost entirely digital in its core and includes
mobile as well as fixed telephones.

The technical operation of the PSTN utilizes standards created by the ITU-T. These
standards allow different networks in different countries to interconnect seamlessly.
There is also a single global address space for telephone numbers based on the
E.163 and E.164 standards.

In another words, PSTN is the global collection of interconnects originally

designed to support circuit-switched voice communication. The PSTN provides the
traditional Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) to residences and many other
establishments. Parts of the PSTN are also utilized for DSL, VoIP and other Internet-
based network technologies. Also another thing worth mentioning, PSTN is a
system based on copper wires carrying analog voice data. This is in contrast to
newer telephone networks base on digital technologies, such as ISDN and FDDI.

The PSTN relies on circuit switching to connect one phone to another; the
phone call is routed through numerous switches operating on a local, regional,
national or international level. The connection established between the two phones
is called a circuit.

(PSTN) consists of switching nodes (called exchanges) in hierarchical structure (Fig.1):

 Local network – connect customers’ stations to LEs.

 Junction network – interconnect group of LEs.

 Trunk / toll network – provides long distance circuits

within country.

 International network – provide circuits between

countries.

 Private Branch Exchange (PBX) – Switch

located in the customer premises.

 Key Telephony Systems (KTS) - Small PBX

The basic PSTN network link supports 64 Kbps

bandwidth. In residences, the PSTN phone line
carrying this bandwidth is typically a copper cable. (Fig. 1)
Traditional dial-up modems utilize nearly 56 Kbps
of this bandwidth when connected to a phone line. The PSTN utilizes the SS7
signaling protocol.

PSTN is also known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) which refers to
the standard telephone service that most homes use. In contrast, telephone
services based on high-speed, digital communications lines, such as ISDN and
FDDI, are not POTS. The main distinctions between POTS and non-POTS services
are speed and bandwidth. POTS is generally restricted to about 52 Kbps (52,000
bits per second).

ISDN: Short for (integrated services digital network), an international

communications standard for sending voice, video, and data over digital telephone
lines or normal telephone wires. It supports data transfer rates of 64 Kbps (64,000
bits per second).

And there are two types of ISDN:

♦ Basic Rate Interface (BRI) -- consists of two 64-Kbps B-channels and one
D-channel for transmitting control information.
♦ Primary Rate Interface (PRI) -- consists of 23 B-channels and one D-
channel (U.S.) or 30 B-channels and one D-channel (Europe).

The original version of ISDN employs baseband transmission. Another version,

called B-ISDN, uses broadband transmission and is able to support transmission
rates of 1.5 Mbps. B-ISDN requires fiber optic cables and is not widely available.

FDDI: Short for (Fiber Distributed Data Interface), a set of ANSI (American National
Standards Institute) protocols for sending digital data over fiber optic cable. FDDI
networks are token-passing networks, and support data rates of up to 100 Mbps
(100 million bits) per second. FDDI networks are typically used as backbones for
wide-area networks.

An extension to FDDI, called FDDI-2, supports the transmission of voice and video
information as well as data. Another variation of FDDI called FDDI Full Duplex
Technology (FFDT) uses the same network infrastructure but can potentially support
data rates up to 200 Mbps.

History of PSTN technology improvements & Operation:

In the past phone calls traveled as analog signals across copper wire. Every phone
call should have its own dedicated copper wire in order to connect the two phones.
That's the operators were needed in making calls. The operators sat at a
switchboard, literally connecting one piece of copper wire to another so that the call
could travel across town or across the country (Fig. 2). Long-distance calls were

Fig. 2
comparatively expensive, because the caller was renting the use of a very long
piece of copper wire every time you made a call.

Beginning in the 1960s, voice calls began to be digitized and manual switching was
replaced by automated electronic switching. Digital voice signals can share the same
wire with many other phone calls. The advent of fiber-optic cables now allows
thousands of calls to share the same line. But fiber-optic and other high-bandwidth
cables haven't changed the basic nature of circuit switching, which still requires a
connection -- or circuit -- to remain open for the length of the phone call. Routing calls
requires multiple switching offices. The phone number itself is a coded map for
routing the call. For example take the number (A US phone number-10 digits-) in the figure below
(Fig. 3-a).

(a)

(Fig. 3)

Country Area Excha Numb

Code Code nge er (b)
01 1 - 408 - 555 - 1212

The first three digits are the area code or national destination code (NDC), which
helps route the call to the right regional switching station.

The next three digits are the exchange, which represents the smallest amount of
circuits that can be bundled on the same switch. In other words, when the user makes a
call to another user in the same exchange, the call doesn't have to be routed onto
another switch.

The last four digits of the phone number represent the subscriber number, which is
tied to the user’s specific address and phone lines.

As for figure (Fig. 3-b) the country code is included which means that long distance provider will connect
to other long distance providers overseas because the user is trying to call another country.

Within a company or larger organization, each employee or department might have

its own extension. Extensions from the main phone number are routed through
something called a private branch exchange (PBX) that operates on the premises.

To make an international call requires further instructions. The call needs to be

routed through your long-distance phone carrier to another country's long-distance
phone carrier. To signal such a switch, you have to dial two separate numbers, the
 user’s country's exit code (or international access code) and the corresponding
country code of the place the user calling.

However, in modern networks the cost of transmission and equipment is lower and,
although hierarchies still exist, they are much flatter, with perhaps only two layers.
Most automated telephone exchanges now use digital switching rather than
mechanical or analog switching. The trunks connecting the exchanges are also
digital, called circuits or channels. However analog two-wire circuits are still used to
connect the last mile from the exchange to the telephone in the home (also called
the local loop).

The basic digital circuit in the PSTN is a 64-kilobit-per-second channel, known as

"DS0" or Digital Signal 0. DS0's are also known as timeslots because they are
multiplexed together in a time-division fashion.

To carry a typical phone call from a calling party to a called party, the audio sound
is:-

 Digitized at an 8 kHz sample rate using 8-bit pulse code modulation.

 Multiple DS0's can be multiplexed together on higher capacity circuits, such
that 24 DS0's make a DS1 signal or T1 (the European equivalent is an E1,
containing 32 64 Kbit/s channels).
 The timeslots are conveyed from the initial multiplexer to the exchange over
a set of equipment collectively known as the access network. The access
network and inter-exchange transport of the PSTN use synchronous optical
transmission (SONET and SDH) technology, although some parts still use the
older PDH technology.

PSTN Pros and Cons

 The PSTN is well-established, easy to configure and easy to use. In comparison

to newer technologies, such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), however, it is
difficult to scale and does not make optimum use of bandwidth.

32-
- Discuss the applications of PSTN.

The following list includes a few of the popular custom calling

features commonly found in the PSTN today:

• Call waiting Notifies customers who already placed a call that they are
receiving an incoming call.

• Call forwarding enables a subscriber to forward incoming calls to a different

destination.

• Three-way calling enables conference calling.

After the deployment of the SS7 network, advanced features appeared. A

few Class features are mentioned in the following list:
 • Displays the calling party's directory number, or Automatic Number
Identification (ANI).

• Call blocking Blocks specific incoming numbers so that callers are greeted
with a message saying the call is not accepted.

• Calling line ID Blocks the outgoing directory number from being shown on someone
else's display.

• Automatic callback enables the user to put a hold on the last number dialed if a
busy signal is received and then automatically place the call to the initiator's
line once the destination is free. This is sometimes also called camp on.

• Call return (*69) Enables users to quickly reply to missed calls.

Many inter-exchange carriers (IXCs) also offer business features, such as

the following:

• Circuit-switched long distance Basic long-distance services (normally at a

steeply discounted rate).

• Calling cards Pre-paid and post-paid calling cards. User dials a number, enter
a password, and then call the user’s destination.

• 800/888/877 numbers the calling party is not charged for the call; Rather, the
party called is charged (normally at a premium rate).

• Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) the telephone company manages a private

dialing plan.

• Private leased lines Private leased lines from 56 kbps to OC-48s enable both
data and voice to traverse different networks.

• Virtual circuits (Frame Relay or Asynchronous Transfer Mode [ATM]) the

telephone carrier (IXC or LEC) switches your packets. It does this packet by
packet (or cell by cell in ATM), not based upon a dedicated circuit.

Note that Custom calling features rely upon the end office switch, not the entire PSTN,
to carry information from circuit-switch to circuit-switch. CLASS features, however,
require SS7 connectivity to carry these features from end to end in the PSTN.

Below are a figures simulates some of the PSTN applications such as Call hold, Toll-
free service, Long Distance Calls ( There is National calls where the calls are routed over the
IOTs through TOs and International calls where the calls are routed over IOTs through IGFs also there is
Direct Dial Systems which do not require humans )…etc.

Note: IOT = Inter-operator trunk, EO = End Office, TO = Tandem Office, IGF =

International Gateway Facility.

Toll-Free Service Call Conference

Call Hold/Waiting

Call Forward

Long Distance