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Topics to be covered

 basic function of the telephone set

 The public switched telephone network
 Switching hierarchy
 Transmission media trunks
 Telemetry, telex, fax
 Telegraph equipment

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18-1: Telephones
 The telephone system is the largest and most
complex electronic communication system in the
world.

 The primary purpose of the telephone system is to

provide voice communication.

 It is also widely used for many other purposes

including facsimile transmission and computer data
transmission.

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18-1: Telephones
 The original telephone system was designed for full-
duplex analog communication of voice signals.
 Today, this system is still primarily used for voice, but
it employs mostly digital techniques, not only in signal
transmission but also in control operations.
 The telephone system permits any telephone to
connect with any other telephone in the world.
 Each telephone must have a unique identification
code—the 10-digit telephone number assigned to
each telephone.

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18-1: Telephones
The Local Loop
 Standard telephones are connected to the telephone
system by way of a two-wire, twisted-pair cable that
terminates at the local exchange or central office.
 As many as 10,000 telephone lines can be connected to
a single central office.
 The two-wire, twisted-pair connection between the
telephone and central office is referred to as the local
loop or subscriber loop.
 The circuits in the telephone and at the central office
form a complete electric circuit, or loop.

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18-1: Telephones

Figure 18-1: The basic telephone system.

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Public Switched Telephone

Network (PSTN)

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The Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), also

known as Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS), is the
wired phone system over which landline telephone calls
are made. The PSTN relies on circuit switching.

To connect one phone to another, the phone call is routed

through a number of switches operating on a local,
regional, national or international level.

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Switching Trunks Switching

Line Office Office Line

Special
Service
Circuit

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The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the

network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone
networks. It consists of telephone lines, fiber optic cables,
microwave transmission links, cellular networks,
communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables,
all inter-connected by switching centers, thus allowing any
telephone in the world to communicate with any other.

Originally it was 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.
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Post-Divestiture (restructuring)
PSTN
hierarchy

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After 1984, to help define local service areas, the country

was broken into 200 pieces called Local Access and
Transport Areas (LATAs).

A LATA is a geographical area established for the provision

and administration of communications service. Local
exchange carriers (LEC) provide service within LATAs.

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18-2: Telephone System

 The central office or local exchange is the facility to which
your telephone is directly connected by a twisted-pair cable.

 Regional Bell operating companies (RBOCs), also called

local exchange carriers (LECs), provide local telephone
service. Independent phone companies provide local service
in rural areas not served by RBOCs.

 The LECs provide telephone services to designated

geographical areas referred to as local access and transport
areas (LATAs).
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Local Exchange Carriers (LEC) are not allowed to handle

long-distance traffic. LECs only provides the telephone
service for the LATAs within their region but do not provide
Long-distance service for the LATAs.

The Inter-LATA service is provided by the long distance

carriers known as Interexchange Carriers (IC or IXC).

An inter-exchange carrier (IXC) is a telephone company

providing connections between local exchanges in different
geographic areas. Inter-Exchange carriers are not allowed to
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 Long-distance service is provided by long-distance

carriers known as interexchange carriers (IXCs).

 The IXCs are the familiar long-distance carriers such as

AT&T (now Southwestern Bell Corp [SBC]), WorldCom
(now Verizon), and US Sprint. PTCL and Warid are few
examples in Pakistan.

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Each LATA contains a serving office called Point Of

Presence (POP), A office that is used to provide the
interconnections to the IXCs. Or in other words all LECs
must provide interexchange carriers with an access point,
called the POP (point of presence).

All the local exchanges connect to an LEC central office

which provide trunks to the POP.

It is at the POP where the long distance carriers can make

their interface connections.
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18-2: Telephone System

Figure 18-18: Organization of the telephone system in the United States.

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PSTN – Internet Connectivity
computer
Computer

Connectivity by using
PSTN

Telephone Telco Modem

Modem Telco network

Fig (2)

9EC606A.56 20

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PSTN – Internet Connectivity

 If we want to connect the internet only occasionally , dial-

up connection with PSTN is used

 To connect the internet , the computer must establish a

connection to the ISP (Internet service Provider)

9EC606A.56 21

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PSTN Internet Connectivity
Ordinary
telephone

Gateway
Gateway Local
PSTN

Internet or
Local intranet
PSTN

Fig.3 Ordinary
telephone

9EC606A.56 22

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PSTN – Internet Connectivity

 Voice over Internet protocol also called VOIP

 Incoming phone calls can be automatically routed to VOIP

phone, regardless of where you are connected to the
network

 While at journey, where ever we get connected to the

internet we can receive incoming calls

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PSTN – Internet Connectivity

 Call center agents using VOIP phones can work from any
where with a sufficiently fast and stable Internet
connection

 Many VOIP packages include PSTN features that most

Telcos normally charge extra

 VOIP allows users to travel anywhere in the world and still

make and receive phone calls
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18-1: Telephones
Telephone Set
 A basic telephone or telephone set is an analog
baseband transceiver.
 It has a handset which contains a microphone and a
speaker, better known as a transmitter and a receiver.
 It also contains a ringer and a dialing mechanism.
 The ringer is either a bell or an electronic oscillator
connected to a speaker.

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18-1: Telephones
Telephone Set
 A switch hook is a double-pole mechanical switch that
is usually controlled by a mechanism actuated by the
telephone handset.
 When the handset is “on the hook,” the hook switch is
open, thereby isolating all the telephone circuitry from
the central office local loop.
 When a call is to be made or to be received, the
handset is taken off the hook, closing the switch and
connecting the telephone circuitry to the local loop.

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18-1: Telephones
Telephone Set
 The dialing circuits provide a way for entering the
telephone number to be called.
 Most telephones use the dual-tone multifrequency
(DTMF) system.
 The handset contains a microphone for the transmitter
and a speaker or receiver.
 The hybrid circuit is a special transformer used to
convert signals from the four wires from the transmitter
and receiver into a signal suitable for a single two-line
pair to the local loop.

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18-1: Telephones

Figure 18-2: Basic telephone set.

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18-1: Telephones
Standard Telephone and Local Loop
 The central office applies a −48 V dc over the twisted-
pair line to the telephone.
 When a subscriber picks up the telephone, the switch
hook closes, connecting the circuitry to the telephone
line.
 The frequency response of the local loop is
approximately 300 to 3400 Hz.

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18-1: Telephones
Transmitter
 The transmitter is the microphone into which you speak
during a telephone call.
 In a standard telephone, this microphone uses a carbon
element that effectively translates acoustical vibrations
into resistance changes.
 The transmitter element is in series with the telephone
circuit, which includes the 48-V central office battery
and the speaker in the remote handset.

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18-1: Telephones

Figure 18-6: The transmitter and receiver in a telephone.

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-48 Volts DC was chosen for several reasons. Firstly it was

considered a “safe, low voltage” that could carry considerable
power over long distances of smaller gauge wires. Also
negative voltage with a positive ground is used to prevent
electrolysis from corroding the copper wires that carry the
signal. A good example of that would be the corrosion that
forms on the positive pole of an older car battery. The other
reason is that the batteries over the years were produced in
multiples of 6 VDC (6, 12, 24, and 48 Volts).

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18-1: Telephones
Receiver
 The receiver, or earpiece, is basically a small
permanent magnet speaker.
 A diaphragm is physically attached to a coil which rests
inside a permanent magnet.
 Whenever a voice signal comes down a telephone line,
it develops a current in the receiver coil.
 The coil produces a magnetic field that interacts with
the permanent-magnet field.
 The result is vibration of the diaphragm which converts
electrical energy into acoustic energy that supplies the
voice to the ear.

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18-1: Telephones
Hybrid
 The hybrid, sometimes called an induction coil, is a
device composed of several transformers that is used to
simultaneously transmit and receive on a single pair of
wires.
 The windings on the transformers are connected so that
signals produced by the transmitter are put on the two-
wire local loop but do not occur in the receiver and vice-
versa.

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18-1: Telephones
Hybrid
 In practice, the hybrid windings permit a small amount
of the voice signal to occur in the receiver. This provides
feedback, called side tone, to the speaker so that he or
she may speak with normal volume.

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18-1: Telephones
 All telephones contain some type of component or circuit
that provides automatic voice level adjustment so that the
signal levels are approximately the same regardless of the
loop lengths of the two telephones connected to each other.

 The use of a rotary dialing mechanism produces what is

known as pulse dialing.

 A dialing system called Touchtone uses pairs of audio tones

to create signals representing the numbers to be dialed.

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Functions of the Telephone Sets

1) Notify the subscriber when there is an incoming call with

an audible signal – bell or visible signal – flashing light

2) Provide a signal to a telephone network verifying when

the incoming call has been acknowledged & answered
– Receiver is lifted off hook

3) Convert speech energy to electrical energy (Tx) and vice

versa (Rx)
– Microphone, Speaker

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4) Incorporate some method of inputting and

sending destination telephone numbers
– From tel. Sets to central office
– ‘pulses’ rotary dialer
– ‘frequency tones’ touch tone

5) Notify the tel. Office when a subscriber wishes

to place an outgoing call (handset lifted off hook)
– Dial tone
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6) Ensure that a small amount of the transmit signal is fed

back to the speaker
– Feedback signal- sidetone/talkback

7) Provide an open circuit (idle condition) to the local loop

when the telephone is not in use (on hook)
– Closed ckt – busy (off hook)

8) Provide a means of transmitting & receiving call progress

signals between the central office switch & the subscriber
– On & off hook signal, busy, ringing, dial tone

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Facsimile (FAX)

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Facsimile
 Facsimile, or fax, is an electronic system for
transmitting graphic information by wire or radio(i.e.
with the help of electro-magnetic waves)..

 Facsimile is used to send printed material by scanning

it and converting it into electronic signals that
modulate a carrier to be transmitted over the
telephone lines.

 Since modulation is involved, fax transmission can

also take place by radio.
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Facsimile
 With facsimile, documents such as letters,
photographs, line drawings, or any printed information
can be converted into an electrical signal and
transmitted.

 Facsimile uses scanning techniques that are similar to

those used in TV.

 A scanning process is used to break a printed

document up into many horizontal scan lines which
can be transmitted and reproduced serially.
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Facsimile

Figure 18-20: Components of a facsimile system.

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How a document is scanned in fax machine:

The process of scanning is done electronically. The

paper is fed into the rollers.

Upper rollers rotate clockwise and lower rollers

rotate anticlockwise. So the paper is pulled into the
machine. The light source focuses a strong light
beam on the paper.

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The light beam reflects from paper surface and

through mirror assembly, it is incident on CCD
(Charge Coupled Devices).

The CCD is a light sensitive semiconductor device. It

has a very large number of tiny capacitor like devices.
These are silicon photodiodes arranged in matrix form
on a silicon chip. They convert variations in light
signals into proportional electrical signals.

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Figure: mechanism of scanning used in fax machine.

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While scanning, reflected light varies depending on the

details in graphical information.

The variations in light are converted into equivalent

electrical signals.
This conversion is done with the help of Charge
Coupled Device (CCD) and electronic memory circuits.
A CCD is a light-sensitive semiconductor device that converts varying light
amplitudes into an electrical signal.

Then the signals are transmitted over telephone line or

through free space.
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By opposite process, the transmitted graphical

information is reproduced in printed form (on paper)
at receiving end of fax machine.

Fax machine is used to send letters, photographs,

maps etc. In short, any information in printed form on
paper can be sent with the help of fax machine.

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Note that complete information on paper is NOT

stored on CCD. The beam of light source scans
the paper horizontally (i.e. along width of paper,
row-by-row).

When it goes from one end to another, the CCD

becomes occupied. Then charged information on
CCD is given out to electronic memory and next
scanning process starts, until complete paper is
scanned.

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Facsimile
How Facsimile Works
 Today’s modern fax machine is a high-tech electro-
optical machine.

 Scanning is done electronically and the scanned signal

is converted into a binary signal.

 Digital transmission with standard modem techniques is

used.

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Facsimile
 The transmission process begins with an image scanner
that converts the document into hundreds of horizontal
scan lines.

 Many techniques are used, but they all incorporate a

photo- (light-) sensitive device to convert light variations
along one scanned line into an electric voltage.

 The resulting signal is then processed in various ways to

make the data smaller and faster to transmit.

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Facsimile
 The signal is sent to a modem where it modulates a
carrier.

 The signal is then transmitted to the receiving fax

machine over the public-switched telephone network.

 The receiving machine’s modem demodulates the

signal that is then processed to recover the original
data.

 The data is decompressed and printed out.

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Facsimile

Figure 18-22: Block diagram of modem fax machine.

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Facsimile
 Most fax machines use charge-coupled devices
(CCDs) for scanning.

 A CCD is a light-sensitive semiconductor device that

converts varying light amplitudes into an electrical
signal.

 Every fax machine contains a built-in modem that is

similar to a conventional data modem for computers.

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Block diagram of fax machine :
Figure: a modern G3–type of fax machine.

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Transmitter block

when paper (graphical information) is inserted into

fax machine, it is scanned row–by–row. The CCD
converts this information into proportional analog
signals. This output is fed to A/D converter circuit. Its
output is in digital form.

This digital data becomes extremely huge due to

scanning details in the document. So it is
compressed with the help of digital data
compression circuit.

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This circuit is made up of VLSI (Very Large Scale

Integration) technology. Hence, the size of data in bits
(binary digits) is reduced. This size of data in terms of
bits is sufficient to represent the image of document.

The compressed data output is fed to modulator. It is

the modem, which can modulate & demodulate digital
data. In modem, a carrier wave is modulated using the
data and transmitted over telephone line. In some
cases, PSK or QAM techniques are used in
modulation.
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Receiver block

when fax signal reaches receiver block through

telephone line, it is demodulated using demodulator
within modem. Thus, at its output we get original data
only in compressed form.

To expand the data it is fed to digital data expansion

block. This circuit is also made up of VLSI (Very
Large Scale Integration) technology. The data is
recovered by removing its data compression into
ORIGINAL SIZE.
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The signals are fed to thermal printer. This printer

requires special HEAT SENSITIVE PAPER. The head
(stylus) of printer, which prints the information on
paper, has tiny heating elements (coils).

These elements rapidly turn on/off, depending on the

signals received. It moves on the paper and actually
burns it into black/shades of black (i.e. gray shades).
In this way, it prints exact image of original document.

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Control blocks

this is very complex circuit used for HANDSHAKING

between two fax machines, during communication.
During this process, different audio tones and beeps
are exchanged and produced. This process takes
place as follows –
i) When a fax machine is dialed, called machine
responds to it by producing an audio tone.
ii) The calling machine sends synchronous signals, so
both machines start at the same time.
iii) The called machine compares this signal as per its
own standards and acknowledges to sync. signals.
Then the printing begins.
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Operator controls block provides user-friendly controls

like start, stop, number to be dialed and a number of
other functions. Motor control circuit controls speed of
motor and paper rollers. It is a constant speed
controller circuit called as governor circuit.
Note: that total communication between two fax
machines is HALF-DUPLEX TYPE. The standards of
modern fax machine are set as per CCITT
(International Telegraph & Telephone Consultative
Committee). This is important to avoid compatibility
problems.
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1. To send a fax, you feed the page into the input slot and it's pulled in
between several pairs of rollers. Larger fax machines have built-in
document feeders that automatically feed in multiple pages from a
stack, so you don't have to stand at the machine feeding in pages one
at a time.

2. As the paper moves down, a bright light shines onto it. White areas of
the page reflect a lot of light; black areas reflect little or none.

3. The light reflects off the page into a light-detecting

CCD (charged-coupled device).

4. The CCD turns the analog pattern of black and white areas on the page
into a numeric (digital) pattern of binary zeros and ones and passes the
information to an electronic circuit.

5. The circuit sends the digital information down the telephone line to the
fax machine at the receiving end.

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6. When you receive a fax, the same circuit takes incoming digital
information from the phone line and routes it to a built-in printer.

7. In a typical personal fax machine, paper is pulled from a large roll

inside the machine. (In a larger office fax machine, it usually comes from
a plain-paper hopper, similar to the one in a laser printer.)

8. The thermal (heat-based) printer, operated by the circuit, reproduces

the incoming fax on the paper as it moves past.

9. An automatic blade cuts the page and the printed fax emerges from the
output slot.

You can see that there are really two separate machines in one: a fax-
sender and a fax-receiver. When you use a fax machine to make quick
"photocopies" of documents, the two machines link up together: instead
of sending a fax down the phone line, the circuit reroutes the scanned
data directly to the printer so you get a copy of your original document.
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