Reed Relay And Crossbar Exchange

A reed relay is a device based on the fact that an electric current

passing through a coil of wire produces an electro-magnet, with the
ends of the coil having opposite magnetic polarities, as in Figure. 1
    If now two thin strips of material that can be magnetized are placed
inside the coil, the strips will become magnetized when the current is
flowing in the coil. If the two strips are placed so that one end of
each overlaps , they will have opposite magnetic polarities and so will
attract each other, as shown in Figure. 2
    These two strips can be used to form a switch in another electrical
circuit.

 
 

Coil of wire as a simple                                Principle of operation of

electro-magnet                                              a reed relay
 
• Selectors in crossbar exchanges have horizontal and vertical bars operated by
electromagnetic   relay coils, so that, with a crossbar switch also, the contacts at a
particular point in a matrix may be operated under the control of these relays.
•     Crossbar switches and reed relays are both used in telephone exchanges. The
basic concept   is however quite different from that of step-by-step exchanges.
•     Both crossbar and reed relay switching depend on the operation of a switching
matrix, the     principle of which can be explained by considering the circuits which are
to be connected    together as being arranged at right angles to each other in
horizontal and vertical lines. These lines represent inlets and outlets of the switch.
This idea is illustrated in Figure. 20a
•     The intersections between horizontal and vertical lines are called cross points. At
each cross- point some form of switch contact is needed to complete the connection
between horizontal   and vertical lines, as shown in Figure 20b . Any of the 4 inlets
can be connected to any of the 4 outlets by closing the appropriate switch contacts.
For example ;         a) Inlet  1  can  be  connected  to  outlet  2  by  closing  contact  B.
        b) Inlet  4  can  be  connected  to  outlet  3  by  closing  contact  R.
•     Considering Figure 20a and 20b again, it can be seen that with  4  inlets and  4 
outlets there are
    16  cross points.
• Obviously, the number of cross points in any matrix switch can be calculated by
multiplying
    the number of inlets by the number of outlets. This is further illustrated in Figure.
20c
    If there are  n  inlets and  m  outlets, then the number of cross point is  (n x m).
 
        a) If  n  is larger than  m  , that is if there are more inlets than outlets, then not all
the inlets can be connected to a different outlet. When all the outlets have been
taken, there will be some inlets still not in use.
        b) If  m  is larger than  n  , that is there are more outlets than inlets, then, when
all inlets are each connected to an outlet, there will be some outlets still not in use.
•     So, the maximum number of simultaneous connections that can be carried by a
matrix switch   is given by which ever of the number of inlets or outlets is smaller.
 
 
 
 TXK

• TXK (Telephone eXchange Crossbar) was a range of Crossbar exchanges used by

the British Post Office telephone network, subsequently BT, between 1964 and 1994.
TXC was used as the designation at first, but this was later changed as TXC sounded
too much like TXE the code used for later electronic exchanges. Prior to this the GPO
had standardised on Strowger for automatic switching and had resisted the adoption
of Crossbar, preferring to wait for its electronic switching research to bear fruit. The
development of electronic systems however took longer than anticipated and the
British equipment manufacturers, particularly Automatic Telephone & Electric (ATE),
which later became part of the Plessey group feared that continuing to focus the bulk
of their production on Strowger equipment would harm their export sales as Crossbar
had already become popular throughout the world.
• In response to this ATE, and later Plessey developed their own crossbar system, the
5005 and pushed for the GPO to adopt it as an interim measure. Normally the GPO
preferred to develop systems in co-operation with the manufacturing companies, from
whom they could then purchase competitively rather than allowing one manufacturer
to sell it a proprietary system. The situation however was becoming critical, waiting
lists for telephone service in the UK were growing embarrassingly long and the
manufacturers were becoming more and more reluctant to supply Strowger in the
quantities needed by the GPO. Eventually the GPO relented and decided to accept
Crossbar equipment into its network.
• The first TXK1 crossbar exchange, with its main distribution frame at Broughton after
installation in 1964. Is it still there?
• This code was given to Plessey's 5005A switch which was used for local exchanges
in non-director areas or group switching centres / sector switching centres(tandem
exchanges). The 5005A was a two wire version of the 5005 meaning the transmit &
receive speech was routed through the switch over one pair of wires. The first one
was installed at Broughton, Preston in 1964 as a field trial replacing Broughton's
manual exchange. The village was chosen due to its relative proximity to the Plessey
factory and research centre at Edge Lane Liverpool.
• Mainstream installation of TXK1's commenced in 1968 and many were installed
throughout the UK until the late 1970s when the more modern TXE4 electronic
system became available. TXK1 remained in use in the BT network until March 1994,
when the last one at Droitwich, Worcestershire was replaced with a digital exchange.
• The Plessey 5005 was made up of routers and distributors. A distributor performed
subscriber concentration and could serve up to 500 lines. A router made up the core
of the exchange for switching traffic between distributors or between a distributor and
an external junction/ trunk. The exchange at Broughton was initially dimensioned to
serve 2000 lines and therefore had four distributors and one router. A 5005 could
serve up to 100,000 lines but in practice no exchanges of this size were used in the
UK.
 TXK2

• This code was used for Plessey 5005T exchanges which was a 4
wire version of the 5005 (separate pair for transmit & receive). In the
UK TXK2's were only used as an international gateway at Wood
Street exchange London. This switch at Wood Street was in fact
previously sold by Plessey to the Australian Post Office for use as
an international gateway at Sydney. A separate switch was to be
supplied for Wood Street but with advanced facilities. In practice
Plessey overstretched themselves and could not make Wood Street
work on time and in-budget. As the APO had finished with their
5005T, it was air-freighted back to the UK in desperation to be put
into service at Wood Street. The 5005T was identical to the 5005A
except for the 4 wire switching and the lack of subscriber line
circuits and concentration stage (i.e no distributors).
 TXK3

• TXK3 was the code allocated to STC's

BXB 1100, a 2 wire version of the French
Pentaconta system. It was used by the
GPO for local exchanges in director areas
(London, Manchester, Birmingham,
Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow) and
for some non-director exchanges in
Northern Ireland. The first one opened at
Edinburgh Liberton in 1971.
 TXK4
• This code was used for STC's BXB1121
which was a four-wire version of the
French Pentaconta system, used by the
British Post Office for main trunk
exchanges. They were all replaced in the
1980s by System X
 TXK5 & 6

• These codes were allocated to two

Ericsson Crossbar systems used as
international gateways in London.
 Reed relay

Reed relay and reed switches

• As a relay is a switch controlled by an electromagnet, so
a reed relay is one or more reed switches controlled by
an electromagnet. The contacts are of magnetic
material; thus the electromagnet acts directly on them
rather than requiring an armature to move them. Sealed
in a long, narrow glass tube, the contacts are protected
from corrosion, thus are ordinarily plated with silver
rather than precious metals. The most common reed
relays of the late 1930s through the 80s had two reed
switches inserted into holes in the bobbin. Since the
moving parts are small, reed relays are capable of faster
switching than most others [1].
• Memory device
• A few million reed relays were used in the 1930s through the 60s for memory functions in
Bell System electromechanical telephone exchanges. Usually one of the reeds latched the relay,
and the other performed a logic function or more often a memory function. Most reed relays in the
Crossbar switching systems of the 1940s through the 1970s were packaged in groups of five.
Such a "reed pack" was able to store one decimal digit, encoded in a two-out-of-five code (74210
variant) for easy validity checking by wire spring relay logic.
• [edit] Crosspoint switch
• In the Bell System Stored Program Control exchange systems of the 1970s, reed relays were no
longer needed for data storage, but tens of millions of them were packaged in arrays for voice
path switching. In the 1ESS switch, the cores were made of a magnetically remanent alloy, so the
relay could latch magnetically instead of latching electrically. This "Ferreed" method reduced
power consumption and allowed both contacts to be used for voice path. The coils were wired for
coincident current selection similar to a magnetic core memory, so operating the contacts for one
crosspoint would release the other crosspoints in its row and column.
• Each input of the array had, besides the two talk wires, a P lead for controlling the crosspoints on
that level. Two coils on each crosspoint were wired in series with all the others on that level, to
the P lead. Each output of the array also had a P lead with two coils on each crosspoint of that
output level. The two windings controlled by the same level were unequal, and were wound
around opposite ends of the reed, in opposing polarity. When a pulse passed through the
crosspoints of a level, the two ends of each reed were magnetized north to north or south to
south, thus repelled each other and opened the crosspoint in all except the selected crosspoint.
• outside the telephone industry.
• The selected crosspoint had current passing through both its input P lead and its output P lead,
thus through all four windings. On each end of the ferreed, the windings provided by the two
different P leads were opposed to each other, and the greater one predominated when both were
energized. This being the input P lead at one end of the ferreed, and the output P lead at the
other end, the two ends of that particular ferreed were magnetized north to south, hence attracted
each other and closed the contact. Current was applied by the pulser only to set up the
connection. The P leads remained dry and the crosspoint remained closed until such time as
another connection was made involving one of the levels.
• Because the individual crosspoints were more expensive than those of crossbar switches, while
the control circuitry was cheaper, reed arrays usually had fewer crosspoints and were more
numerous. This required them to be arranged in more stages. Thus, while a telephone call in a
typical crossbar exchange like 5XB passed through four switches, a call in a reed system such as
1ESS typically passed through eight.
• In the later 1AESS, the reeds themselves were of remnant magnetic material. This "Remreed"
design allowed further reduction in size and power consumption. A "grid" of 1024 2-wire
crosspoints, arranged as two stages of eight 8x8 switches, was permanently packaged in a box.
Despite the sealed contacts, plating with silver rather than with precious metals resulted in reed
arrays being less reliable than crossbar switches. When one crosspoint failed, the grid box was
quickly replaced whole, and either repaired at a local workbench or shipped to a repair shop.
• Stromberg-Carlson made the similar ESC system, whose reeds were called crossreeed.
• Reed arrays passed out of use in the early 1990s, being unnecessary in true electronic (digital)
telephone systems such as DMS-100 and 5ESS switch. Reed relays continued in their old uses