- 10 -
more easily harnessed to allow a large network to be controlled
by a single high-speed processor.
Design and Architecture of the Modern Digital Switch
Modern digital switches are designed from the ground up by a
handful of manufacturers around the world. In the 1980s, the
major North American manufacturers were ITT Corp., Northern
Telecom, Inc. (NTI), American Telephone & Telegraph Co., GTE
Corp., TRW Vidar, Inc., and Stromberg Carlson, Inc.
Beginning in the late 1970s, engineers designing a
particular model of a switch did not merely arrange standard
electronic components into a standard structure. Rather, a
particular overall structure was conceived, and then the
components of each of the interfaces, the network devices, and
the control mechanisms (including the encoded program) were
specially engineered in the context of that concept. As a result
of design choices and the proprietary nature of certain custom
designed components (many of which are patented), the
architecture of a modern digital switch produced by one
manufacturer differed (and still differs) significantly from the
architecture of a switch produced by another.
Because each switch was designed for the particular
parameters (number of subscribers, usage patterns, potential for
growth) of a given central office location, there could be
differences in architecture between switches produced by the same
manufacturer but installed in two different locations.
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011