SPC Telephone Exchange
SPC Telephone Exchange
This talk covers the historical development of telephone techniques, leading to the application of computer controlled exchanges. structure and function of the programs used is described. 1 Introduction A telephone engineer, who talks on an international seminar in Computing Science, has to face a serious risk of being misunderstood. Not only is there the difference between theory (the scientific world) and practice (of the application-directed telephone-administrat ion), but even more important is the difference in language between the fields of computer science and telecommunications. different. The terminology, the symbols, the diagrams and the units in which I shall express myself are quite Still worse is the situation that in both fields the same words can have different meanings; for exampl e, the word digit, which means in telephony a figure out of a subscriber's number or an exchange code. The words number and themselves are ambiguous in this context. When I hope to reach at least some understanding in this circle then I base my optimism on the fact that at a certain time compute r s as well as telephone exchanges were based on the same building stone: elctro-mechanical relay. one to expect t hat they are not too dissimilar. 2 Hi storical Development The process of making a telephone call in a manual and an automatic exchange is elucidated in Figure 1. In this process we distinguish the The This common ancestry of both fields leads The
us e of s i gnals (directed to a machine), tones (from machine to person) and speech (b etween persons). This combination of electri cal and aural For machine to man information-streams i s characteristic of telephony.
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this situation can give rise to difficu l ties (for exampl e a f r ee-tone in one country may be int erpreted as a busy-tone in another country ). To get an impress i on of the technical development in automat i c telephony the first patent for an automatic telephone exchange taken out by Almon B. St rowger in 1891 is shown in Figure 2. automat i c exchanges we r e buil t following t his prin c ip le. Th e f ir s t The
te lephone-dial was i nv ented, and to split th e impulse-ser i es (digit s) during the dialling, each selector had t o be equipped wi t h several relays. When the number of subscribers of a telephone service gre1< above the capacity of t h e selector, a more compli cated co nnection n etwork, consisting of several selector-stages became n ecessary . These so-called " step by step" systems had t h e property that. t he movements of the switches during ca ll set-up were directly e ffe cted by the dial-pulses (a pulse for each step) . There were severa l drawba ck s in t h ese c la ssic al switching systems . The switching was slow, the equipment wa s voluminous, and complicated
mechanical movements of the swi tch es cause d se rious wear making a bi g
(the contro l equ ipment ) had only to operate duri ng cal l set-up and on disconnection , a nd stood idle most. of the t im e . The newer switching equipment needs less mechanical movements during the call set-up and disconnection pr ocess: Rotary selectors Crossbar-switches Relay-matrices Reed-relay matrices only rotation of the wipers
centra l axi s
around the
small movement s of hori zontal and vertical bar to set on e cross point
small movements of one relay armature
The switching device became more simple and t he co ntrol -fun ctio ns became more centrali ze d. Centralized registers which were connected to a caller to assemble and sto r e t he di a ll ed digits were nec ess ary. By means of anoth er device, called a marker, t hi s information Wa S used to build up a speec h pat h t h rough the switch es in the inter connection-network (" swi tc hblo ck") of the exchange. up oth er calls. Regi ste rs and mark ers were switched off during the call, and were availab l e to set The connection wa s watch ed by a junctor circ ui t , whi ch
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caused the disconnection after cal l-terminati on. A further centralization of control-functions was the introduction of an electronic number-analyzer, which translated the received digits into information neces sary for steering of the selector- stages, for the choice of the tariff-class, for deciding whether all digits were received, and for the destination of the start-moment of setting up the speech-path in the switching network. The registers and markers could be simpler, and a great number of registers co uld make use of . one number-analyzer, which contained the more complicated logical functions of the exchange. Then the introduction of electronic memories as stores for subscribers' information ( class of subscriber, subscribers' meter s ) was considered. In the United Kingdom magnetic drums were used for the translation-functions in S.T.D. (subscriber trunk dialling) A logical next step was the introduction of the computer in the exchange to control and steer the switching network. A general scheme of such a "stored program contro lled" (S.P .C. ) exchange consists of three main parts: The speech-path network The interface equ ipment The central processor The first telephone exchange of this type was developed at the Bell Telephone Laboratories and put into service in 1965 in Succas unna (U. S .). Since then in several countries switching systems using this prin c iple were developed. The idea of SPC-switching systems became the leading (In the PTT-network in the Netherlands trend in exchange development.
we now have in operation three different types of SPC-exchanges for three different applications and developed by three different manufacturers.) 3 The Telephone Process in a SPC-Exchange To give you some idea about the hardware construction of such a SPC-exchange Figure 3 shows a schematic drawing of a laboratory model that was built in our PTT-laboratories. Information about the subscriber's status, namely, "on hook" every 250 milliseconds. or
"off hook" is assembled by scanners which scan each subscriber 's line The scan information for 16 subscribers' is assembled in one word and is compared with the former scan result for
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sent to the processor, together with the numbers of the subscribers. This is, by the way, a matter of trade-off in exchange-design. some early systems all scan information was directly sent to the processor and the control of the scanning process was also in the hands of the processor. This caused a considerable processor load.
In later designs the scanners work autonomously, (but containing more hardware), so the traffic capacity of the processor was increased. The same type of considerations apply for the dialling-informationreceiver. Whether each individual pulse or each digit or the complete number is sent to the depends on available technology and the
t rade-off of price and load-values .The process of establishing a telephone call and the disconnection can be split up in several parts. processor to the switching network. In the preparation of the call first the exchange finds a new offhook situation for the calling subscriber A, followed by the throughconnection to a dial-information receiver. further action. In the dialling phase the information is received by the processor, and on completion of the number, the dial-information receiver is disconnected. The dialling phase is of course very time-critical, because here we have the risk of losing information. The next phase is the through-connection to the called subscriber B. The transmission of a free-tone to A and of a ringing current to the bell of B, both sent by junctor BVS, is now beginning. reaction from B. When B lifts his handset the transmission of a free-tone and a ringing current stops. Conversation can take place. When both subscribers put down their handsents, this is discovered by junctors AVS and BVS and transmitted to the processor, releasing the switching network. The exchange waits for The dial-information receiver sends a dial tone to the calling subscriber A, and the exchange waits for In a processor-controlled exchange, Figure 4, we will have a number of messages going to and from the central
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The Telephone Process as seen by the Central Processor For a typical local exchange with a maximum of 15,000 subscribers
10 o'clock we have in such an exchange about 1000 different telephone With a call duration of 120 seconds we find approximately 250 messages per second to and from the processor. From a software point of view the system presents itself as illustrated by Figure 5. Via the input/output bus system the central control unit has access to peripherals r epresent ing the telephone equipment in the switching network, and to other peripherals catering for the input and output of information for the m intenance and a operation of the system (teleprinter, tape punch and tape reader). To the central control unit the test points of the signal detectors and the drive points of the relays in the junctors appear as external memory blocks of 16-bit words from which the test. point conditions may be r ead and into which the conditions of the relays may be written. and rel ease, and from which the command results may b e read. notion of time is represented by clock pulses. data of the system. The The markers are units which can be given commands for connection build-up The memory has a word
length of 16 bits and is used for the storage of programs as well as of The size of the memory for a complete exchange of The lamp 15,000 subscribers is typically between 128K and 256K words. and for fault tracing. As already menti oned, one of the optimization criteria of an S.P.C. exchange design is the trade-off between functions to be fulfilled by hardware in connecting section or by software in the processor. differences in concepts. For scanning and for receiving dialling information we already see some In small exchanges these funct ions are for For greater designs the the greater part fulfilled by the proc esso r. delegated to dedicat ed hardware. Also the data about the situation in the swi tching network can, at every path search, be read at the testpoints of the .n etwo rk its e lf or be
and key panel is us ed only when t he system is started for the first time
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Subscribers can by sys tematically connected to the switching network in such a way that the subscriber's number gives directly the place where his line is connected. Alternatively there could be a full translation The latter between place number and subscriber's number in the processor.
case gives full freedom for distributing subscribers' lines over the switching network, but costs both processor-time and memory-space. The subscribers' meters can be implemented in the processor-memory and the metering-information can be put on a magnetic tape for later processing by an off-line computer. 5 Data List Structure The subscriber's data, like his line-class, his tariff group, the list of his facilities, his meter, the status of his line(s), etc. will be stored in a list structure. In particular, his list of numbers for A total abbreviated dialling may take a considerable number of memory-words (for instance a 12-digit number takes 3 words of 16 bits). of 10 short numbers per subscriber would mean for a 15,000 line exchange a memory space of 450K words if we gave this feature to all subscribers. For the construction of the subscriber's data list we shall consider two principles. In the system of direct addressing, Figure 6, we can find the subscriber's half-word directly by shifting the telephone number one bit to the right and adding it to the begin-address of the list. the 8 bits of the subscriber's half-word, one bit is reserved to indicate whether the other 7 bits are subscriber's data or whether t.hey contain a reference X to a second list. reference Y to a t.hird list etc. In the search method, Figure 7, we have only one or two bits per subscriber indicating whether the subscriber is a normal one or whether we should search further in the list of records for abnormal subscribers. Eventually a reference to a t hird list may be given. Direct addressing is quicker but the search method needs less memory space. The choice between the different data structures is made depending on the expectation of the percentage of subscribers which wants special facilities. On the address given by X we find a record of 4 words, of which the last word may be a further From
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monitor or supervisor-function cannot control the input and output autonomously, but is instead subject to exacting time limits. satisfy. These limits are due to the response time demands which the system must
a real-time process, but here we have two more characteristics for such a process: When the system fails to satisfy the response time requirements the process will go out of control partially or completely beyond
recovery.
The response time is of the order of time required to convert the input into the output. Taking a closer look to the SPC-exchange we see the following characteristics and requirements which have a marked effect on the design of the monitor: a) The shortest response time is of the order of 30 ms that a digit is offered to the processor input). b) c) The programs controlling the exchange are interdependent. Telephoning is a stochastic process, in which for instance 0.1% of the calls offered may be allowed to be lost (contrary to accounting systems, ,;'here all traffic must be processed as a matter of principle). d) The down-time of a telephone exchange should be very short (less than 5 hours in 40 years). Because the system must satisfy the response time, time-limiting is necessary. This is introduced with clock pulses recurring every 10 ms., During every basic interval which thus forms the basic interval. (minimum time
common functions are carried out first (for example time limits for programs, scanning of test points, etc.). Several events may coincide in a telephone-exchange, but the processor can only execute its instructions sequentially. The work for the processor is therefore divided into a number of priority levels.
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The priority c l assificat i on is an import ant feature of t he software for SPC-exc hanges . 50-100 pro grams . for example (i) They may b e divided int o a numb e r of l evels , programs having t h e same priority for corres ponding l eve ls. (ii) They may be placed on a li st : The position of a program on the list r epresents the prio rity of this pro gram. In this case t he co nt r ol and in formatio n a re transferred from one program to a nother. The differenc es of prio rity c l ass i ficat ion gi ve distinct diff e r en c es in the programming of exchang es. one In metho d (i) every priority-l evel has Th e list and one save area , (Figure 8) wh ere intermediate resu lts The control of a telephone exchange often require s Th ese programs may be organ ized in different way s ,
monitor consul ts the work li st and calls in t h e necessa ry programs. When the work li st i s empty the moni tor moves to the work li st of t he next level of lowe r priority. In method (ii) each program mu st have Each program empties its own work In t his case t h e moni to r i ts own save area and work li st .
f un ctions are few and mainly consist in t h e hand ling of interrupts. Comparing t he two methods we see: 1. Method (i) requires more memor y s pace for t h e compli c ated monitor pro gram , but n eed s l ess save area and work list space. 2. M ethod (i) i s more flexible with res pect to the introdu ctio n of new programs and the re-arranging of the exist ing pro grams (standard int e rface to the monitor). Looking at several SPC-exchangesystems on the market we see an eve n greate r difference in the way in which the moni t or or supervision-function i s realized. In some systems this function is implement ed in hardware . In other systems the monitor can take as much as 35K of 16 bitsinstruction-words. 7 Te l ephon e Software So far we have seen that the handling of scanning r es ult s , t he interpretation of the received signalling, the call set-up and disconn ec t proc edure , the handling of subscriber's data and the free path search, are
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Anoth e r type of
act i vity in t h e telephone swi tching proc ess i s t h e guarding of time-limits, for exampl.e subsc ribers taking too l ong to begin dialling or the recognition of signalling i mpu l ses on impul se duration . A further important program package is t he system ass uran ce program. When t he hardwar e or software ha s d etected a fault, t hi s program comes in a t the highest prio rity level to make sure that prompt steps are taken to ensu r e uninterrupted te l ephone service. Fo r this reason the central processing unit and the memory hav e been dupl i cated ; the same precaution has been tak en in other sect i ons f or all hardware that is commo n to more than 64-128 s ubscribers . 'W ith t h e maintenanc e and operation packag e , lin es and junctors may be blocked and tested and data may be extracted from t h e memory and changed. For example , sub scribers ' mete r s may be read and service Furthermore t raffic r eco rds can be mad e, and faul ts c l asses changed.
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may be r emoved by mean s of diagno st i c and fault lo cat ion pro g ram s . Wi th the system test package the system may be che ck ed when i t i s to be brought into service for the first time or when i t is expanded. These last t ,;o packages need not be a lways available in the system. They can b e on d emand loaded into the free overlay area in t he proc ess or
memory.
Processor Configurat i ons In some te l ephon e systems a numb er of processors together function in
a mult i-processor-system, however, for t he c ontrol of t h e exchange we will consider h e r e on l y the more frequent a nd simpl er case of duplicat ed proces so rs. The following configuration s exi st:
1.
Active/S tandby The active pro cess or carries t h e lo ad, whil e the othe r rema ins i n
standby.
In the case of co ld stand by the standby processor is only In this case t he standby processor has no In t he case of Fault
switch ed i n wh en necessary.
hot stand by, the standby processor ' s memory i s regularly updat ed.
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2.
Parallel Processing or Microsyncronization The two processors and their memories are running syn chronously
Hardware errors
or failures are det e cted imme diately and initiate test routines which determine t he faul t y processor. This unit is disabled and t he load is carried by the remaining processor. 3. Load Sharing Each of the processors takes a part of th e telephony co ntrol pro cess. Th e memori e s of both proce s sors are regularly updated. At each clock In case interrupt, fault detection is carried out in each individual pro c essor in addition to a regular check of one processor by the other. of a software failure the other processor will take over. In comparison one can say that configuration 3 is not blo cked by a software failure, but that hardware failur e s are dete cted (too) late. Configuration 2 can only find a software failure by a tim e-out. Configuration 1 seems to have no advantage over the other two. Hardware faults are detected immediately and can therefore be better traced.
One important feature in the double pro c e s sor configuration is the access of the healthy processor to the control-wires of the sick one. In this case the healthy processor can handle all diagnosis-procedures that otherwise are executed by the repair man. So we can reach a saving of repair-time, and this gives a rise in the system reliability. 9 Centralized Maintenance and Supervision (BOA) At the moment a system for regional centralization of maintenance and supervision is being developed in the Netherlands (Figure 9). Such regional centres can serve 300,000 subscribers or 100 SPC exchanges. A service computer system is placed in the centre whi ch fulfills several functions: 1. 2, 3. 4. 5. Continuously guards all connected exchanges. Records and reacts to alarms. Interfaces between several departments and exchanges. Library for all overlay programs (for maintenance and testing). Library for all load tapes of each of the exchanges.
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6.
Contains all "roll back" information in case of com pl ete syst em failure.
7.
Connection to the computer system for administrative purposes (ITCIS). Thi s BCA- system wi ll be introduced in ste ps. In the tele phon e
n etwork we will have five l ayers with respect to co ntrol-fun ct ions. Difference and Similariti es of Computer Applications for Tel ephone Exchange Control and for Mathematical and Administrative Purpo ses SPC-Exc h. Processing s peed Number of processes Urgency Res pon se time Purpose Character of Process System a llowance Immedi ate pro cessing 10 Th e Future Futur e developments includ e the development of the digital trunk-net work and the development of new method s of presentation of functional s pec ific ation, command languag es for SPC-exchanges, a high l eve l pro gr amming language for SPC- exc hanges , and a compil er generat ing cod e no more than 5% longer t han code produced by a skilled programmer. in SPC exchanges. Finally we consider how Computer Science graduates may contribute I nt e rnationa l studies are going on in this field, and I fores e e a con s ide rabl e growth High Hi gh Hi gh Small Control of Hardware Taking
Dec i s i ons
Adm. Compo Hi gh High High Not small Proces s ing of data In f ormation flow
I mportant Necessary
to Te lephony.
t han vice-versa, but software men are better prepared to work in the following fields: 1. 2. Development of monito rs. Deve lopment of compilers for new languag es.
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3. 4. 5.
Help in the definition of t he languages. Assembly systems for l oad tapes (data Simulation of systems.
& programs).
Discussion Foll owing the pr esentation of hi s paper ir. Boesveld was qu est i oned
on t h e facilities t hat stored program exc ha nges could provide and h e und erlined some of t he pra ctical problems that t he se desirable features brought in their wake . For instance, if someone ' s calls were being automatically directed to you, and you answer t h e phone with your name and number, t h e ca ll er is likely to say "sorry, wrong number" and try again. Th e whol e process n eeds careful thought . visit him at night. Professor Galler wa nted to be able to re-route hi s calls to a friend ' s house when he went to ir. Boesveld wondered if his friend wanted that as This underlines the A doctor well - if so, the friend must give permission too .
complication of what is s up erficial l y a simpl e process. number, but the patient must be able to refuse. when renting a tele ph one. s u ch concern for the customers.
visiting a pati ent may wish his call s transferred to t h e patie nt' s He had h is rights One cou ld wish for a wide distribution of
Profess or Galler did get ir. Bo esve ld to agree t hat a prob lem of compl exi ty was one thing, but it was not the teleph one compa ny ' s busines s to tell him, t h e customer, that h e didn ' t want to use a certain propos ed facility . That is the customer ' s busin ess. However ir. Boesveld did note that investigations revealed that t hings t hat cu st omers thought they wanted sometim es turned out not to be s o desirable after a ll. For instance, wi t h s h ort numbers, a greater
incidence of errors may arise.
Professor Ercoli enquir ed if computers for telephon e exchanges needed special attributes, or could , say, t h e PDP-11 range be used. ir. Boesve ld sa id that ordinary machines we re us ed in t he laboratory where reliability mattered l ess, but for actua l use, special machines were contructed with a lot of de-rating. fans were used for cooling. operation. For instance, no mechani cal Some The a i m 'was for 40 years of trouble free Dr. Fraser comment ed
that the design of PDP-11 s was unsui table in t h at if any device on the
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bus is powered off then the whole machine becomes inoperable. is entirely unsatisfactory for use in a telephone exchange, and thoroughly unnecessary both functionally and economically. exchanges.
This
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Labs put several special reliability features in their computer For instance all signals are reflected back to the There is a lot of unnecessary reinvention sender for checking.
of the wheel going on in this area. On the novel note that some manufacturers, other than the usual IBM, were coming in for criticism, Professor Page wound up the
discussion .
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