Adama Science and Technology University

Department of
Electronics and Communication Engineering

Telecommunication Networks and Switching

(ECE5306)

Chapter 3
Switching and Signaling
Switching

 Long distance transmission is typically done over a network of

switched nodes.
 Nodes not concerned with content of data.
 End devices are stations.
 Computer, terminal, phone, etc.
 A collection of nodes and connections is called as
communication network.
 Data routed by being switched from node to node.

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 Switching Techniques

 There are four main switching techniques available for

digital traffic.
 Circuit Switching
 Message Switching
 Packet Switching
 Cell Switching
 frame relay
 Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)

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 Circuit Switching

 Circuit switching is a technique that directly connects the

sender and the receiver in an unbroken path.
 Telephone switching equipment, for example, establishes a
path that connects the caller's telephone to the receiver's
telephone by making a physical connection.
 With this type of switching technique, once a connection is
established, a dedicated path exists between both ends
until the connection is terminated.
 Routing decisions must be made when the circuit is first
established, but there are no decisions made after that time.

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Circuit Switching Cont’d…..

Fig. Circuit Switching

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 Circuit Switching Cont’d…..
 Advantages:
 The communication channel (once established) is dedicated.
 Disadvantages:
 Possible long wait to establish a connection, (10 seconds,
more on long- distance or international calls.) during which
no data can be transmitted.
 More expensive than any other switching techniques,
because a dedicated path is required for each connection.
 Inefficient use of the communication channel, because the
channel is not used when the connected systems are not using
it.
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 Message Switching

 With message switching there is no need to establish a

dedicated path between two stations.
 When a station sends a message, the destination address is
appended to the message.
 The message is then transmitted through the network, in its
entirety, from node to node.
 Each node receives the entire message, stores it in its entirety
on disk, and then transmits the message to the next node.
 This type of network is called a store-and-forward network.
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 Message Switching Cont’d…..

 A message-switching node is typically a general-purpose

computer.
 The device needs sufficient secondary-storage capacity to
store the incoming messages, which could be long.
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 Message Switching Cont’d……

 Advantages:
 Channel efficiency can be greater compared to circuit-
switched systems, because more devices are sharing the
channel.
 Traffic congestion can be reduced, because messages may be
temporarily stored in route.
 Message priorities can be established due to store-and-
forward technique.
 Message broadcasting can be achieved with the use of
broadcast address appended in the message.

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Message Switching Cont’d……

 Disadvantages:
 Message switching is not compatible with interactive
applications.
 Store-and-forward devices are expensive, because they
must have large disks to hold potentially long
messages.

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 Packet Switching
 Packet switching can be seen as a solution that tries to combine
the advantages of message and circuit switching and to minimize
the disadvantages of both.
 There are two methods of packet switching: Datagram and
virtual circuit.

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Packet Switching Cont’d….
 In both packet switching methods, a message is broken into
small parts, called packets.
 Each packet is tagged with appropriate source and destination
addresses.
 Since packets have a strictly defined maximum length, they
can be stored in main memory instead of disk, therefore access
delay and cost are minimized.
 Also the transmission speeds, between nodes, are optimized.
 With current technology, packets are generally accepted onto
the network on a first-come, first-served basis.
 If the network becomes overloaded, packets are delayed or
discarded.
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 Packet Switching: Datagram
 Datagram packet switching is similar to message switching in
that each packet is a self-contained unit with complete
addressing information attached.
 This fact allows packets to take a variety of possible paths
through the network.
 So the packets, each with the same destination address, do not
follow the same route, and they may arrive out of sequence at
the exit point node (or the destination).
 Reordering is done at the destination point based on the
sequence number of the packets.
 It is possible for a packet to be destroyed if one of the nodes on
its way is crashed momentarily. Thus all its queued packets
may be lost.

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 Packet Switching: Virtual Circuit

 In virtual circuit, the route between stations does not mean that
this is a dedicated path, as in circuit switching.
 A packet is still buffered at each node and queued for output
over a line.
 The difference between virtual circuit and datagram approaches:
 With virtual circuit, the node does not need to make a routing decision for
each packet.
 It is made only once for all packets using that virtual circuit.

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 Advantages of packet switching
 Advantages:
 Packet switching is cost effective, because switching
devices do not need massive amount of secondary storage.
 Packet switching offers improved delay characteristics,
because there are no long messages in the queue (maximum
packet size is fixed).
 Packet can be rerouted if there is any problem, such as,
busy or disabled links.
 The advantage of packet switching is that many network
users can share the same channel at the same time.
 Packet switching can maximize link efficiency by making

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optimal use of link bandwidth. 15
 Disadvantages of packet switching

 Disadvantages:
 Protocols for packet switching are typically more complex.
 It can add some initial costs in implementation.

 If packet is lost, sender needs to retransmit the data.

 Packet-switched systems still can’t deliver the same quality as
dedicated circuits in applications requiring very little delay -
like voice conversations or moving images.

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Cell Switching

 Cell switching is a form of packet switching.

 The main difference between a packet-switched network and a

cell-switched network is the size of the cell.
 Cells are extremely small and do not vary in size. Their size
makes them fast and provides for a network with a low
latency.

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Cell Switching Cont’d………….
 An example of a cell-switched network is Asynchronous
Transfer Mode (ATM) with a cell length of 53 bytes including
the data portion.
 Because a cell does not vary in size, each router in the cell-
switched network knows how much data to expect with each
cell and is built to take advantage of it.
 The tiny cell is small enough to be stored in random access
memory, whereas a packet-switching router must store a
packet to disk.
 Because the router need only switch the cell in and out of its
fastest memory, there is little latency in a cell-switched
network.
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 Signaling

 The exchange of information between call components

required to provide and maintain service.
 Dialing digits, providing dial tone, accessing voice mail,
sending a call waiting tone, *804#,etc.
 There are three main types of signaling:
 Supervisory Signaling
 Address Signaling
 Call Progress Signaling

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 Supervisory Signaling
 Provides information on line or circuit condition.
 Informs a switch whether a circuit (internal to switch) or a
trunk (external to switch) is busy or idle, a called party is off-
hook or on-hook…
 Some supervisory signals:
 Request for service - off-hook
 Ready to receive address - dial tone
 Call alerting – ringing
 Call termination - on-hook
 Request for operator - hook-switch flash
 Called party station ringing - ring back
 Network/called station busy - busy tone

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 Address Signaling

 Directs and routes a telephone call to the called subscriber.

 If there is more than one switch involved in the call setup,
signaling is required between switches (inter-register
switching).
 Example: DTMF (Dual Tone Multi Frequency) Signaling

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 Call Progress Signaling

 Categorized by audio/visual signals sent in a forward and

backward direction.
 Forward Signaling:
 A signal sent to your phone which tells it to ring.
 Backward Signaling:
 Ringback - the distant telephone you are calling is
ringing
 Busyback - the called line is busy
 ATB - All trunks are busy (sometimes a voice announcement is used)
 Loud Warble - Telephone is off hook

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 Signaling Techniques

 There are four basic techniques of signaling:

 In band signaling

 Out-of-band signaling

Example: Common Channel Signaling (CCS)

 E&M signaling

 MF signaling

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 In - Band Signaling

 Signaling path = voice path

 Voice path blocked with signaling
 Busy calls and congestion result in 20-35% of incomplete
calls.
 Slower call setup due to channel sharing.

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 Out - of - Band Signaling
 Signaling path done on a separate channel.
 Voice path dedicated only to voice.
 Much faster call setup and knock down.
 Led to SS7 and AIN
Example: Common Channel Signaling (CCS)

Signaling
Network

Fig. Out-of-band Signaling

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 Advantages of CCS
 One signaling path needed per trunk group.
 Faster and simpler to transfer information between control
processors.
 No possibility of interference with speech path.
 Signaling can’t be accessed by customer.
 Value-added services of a signaling control point
 Shared processing for small offices
 Allows centralized decision making (flow management)
 Permits Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) services

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 Disadvantages of CCS

 CCS links can be a single point of failure

 No inherent testing of speech path by call setup signaling
 CCS response time is critical

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 Trunk Group Disassociated CCS
Signaling /Switching Center

Speech Paths
CCS Data Link

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 Trunk Group Associated CCS

TR-303
DLC CO Switch
Trunk Group

TR-303
Control
Link

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 Signaling Techniques Cont’d……

 E&M Signaling:
 Used mostly for trunk supervision on an analog network
 E-lead: carries signals to the switching equipment: recEive
 M-lead: carries signals away from the switching
equipment:transMit
 MF Signaling: Multi-Frequency
 Used primarily for inter-register signaling

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 Signaling and Switching Dependence

 Signaling and Switching are closely tied.

 Signaling allows switching to automate the network.

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