UNIT 7

MAINTENANCE OF
DIGITAL SWITCHING
SYSTEMS

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• Scope
• This chapter introduces typical interfaces
that are utilized in maintaining central
offices both remotely and locally. Topics
essential to CO maintenance such as fault
reports, software patches, and the
software and hardware upgrade process,
including firmware, are also covered.

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• Software Maintenance
• - Supplier-initiated software maintenance
• Software maintenance by site owners

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Interfaces of a Typical Digital Switching
System Central Office

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• These other departments interact with a
digital switch:
• Engineering support
• Billing center
• Security
• Special translation support
• Trunk and line assignment

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• System Outage and Its Impact
• Digital Switching System Reliability Digital switch outages
represent the most visible measure of switching system
reliability and affect maintainability.
• The Various studies' have been conducted to better understand
the causes of digital switch outages. Traditionally, the causes
of outages have been classified into four categories:
• - Software deficiencies. This includes software "bugs" that
cause memory errors or program loops that can be cleared only
by major initialization.
• - Hardware failure. This relates to simplex and/or duplex
hardware fail- ures in the system which result in a system
outage.
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• Impact of Software Patches
• Patches are a "quick fix" or program modification
without recompilation of the entire generic release.
• Embedded Patcher Concept
• Embedded patcher programs that operate as software
maintenance programs and reside in digital switches
have alleviated some of these problems.

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 Growth of Digital Switching System
Central Offices
• Most digital switching systems need to be upgraded
or "grown" during their lifetimes. This process
represents a major effort for maintenance
organizations such as SCCs and ESACs.

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 Generic Program Upgrade
• At least the following points need to be covered in the method
of procedure (MOP) along with other detailed items that are
specific to a digital switch and a CO:
• - Time line for the entire upgrade process
• - Availability of the switch during that period a Dumping of
existing data tables that need to be repackaged with the new
release
• - Verification of old tables with new tables to ensure that all
old functionalities are supported in the new release
• - The synchronization of hardware availability and software
upgrade if hardware upgrade is included along with software
upgrade
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 A Methodology for Reporting and Correction of Field
Problems

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 Diagnostic Capabilities for Proper Maintenance of
Digital Switching Systems

• Effective diagnostic programs and well-thought-out

maintenance strategies play a very important role in
the proper maintenance of digital switching systems
with reduced maintenance cost.
• It is imperative in the overall evaluation of a digital
switch that the diagnostic capability of a switch be
considered an item of high importance.

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 Effect of Firmware Deployment on
Digital Switching Systems
• The recent trend toward distributed processing in
digital switching systems has resulted in increased
use of firmware. The impact of firmware on digital
switching system reliability and maintainability can
be substantial.
• The updating process for firmware can have a
significant impact on the operational reliability of a
switching system, particularly if firmware changes
are frequent.
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 Firmware-Software Coupling
• The basic notion of "coupling" between firmware and software
evolved slowly in the telecommunications industry.
• The need to change significant numbers of firmware packs as
part of generic updates has created a number of problems,
including these:
• - Increased simplex times for switches during the firmware
update process
• - Increased switch downtimes due to system faults while in
simplex mode, required initializations for firmware changes,
insertion of defective firmware circuit packs, and damaged
circuit packs due to electro- static discharge (ESD)

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 A strategy for improving software
quality

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• Software Processes
• The software processes shown in before slide
relate to the software metrics discussed below.
These include
• 1. Software development process 2. Software
testing process
• 3. Software deployment process 4. Software
maintenance process
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 Defect Analysis
• The defect analysis is a base process for this strategy. It drives
the continuous-improvement program. There are some well-
defined methodologies for defect analysis
• a software problem may have originated from - Central
processor software
• - Network processor software - Interface controller software
• - Peripheral software (lines, trunks, etc.)
• The next step is to identify the software subsystem that may
have caused the problem:
• - Operating system
• - Recovery software - Switching software
• - Application software (features, etc.)
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