The Telephone

Network
 Introductory Concepts
❑ Telecommunication means “communications at a distance”
❑ Tele in Greek means at a distance
❑ Electrical communications by
❑ wire, radio, or light (fiber optics)
❑ Traditionally two distinct disciplines:
❑ Switching: selects and directs communication signals to a
specific user or a group of users
❑ Transmission: delivers the signals in some way from source to
the far-end user with an acceptable signal quality
 Simple Transmission System

Source Transmission Medium Destination

❑ The source may be a simple telephone microphone,

keyboard
❑ The destination may be a simple telephone speaker,
monitor

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Transmission Media
❑ It can be a seen as a single electrical medium

Source Medium Destination

❑ Or, as a cascade of electrical media

Source Medium Medium Medium Destination

❑ Networks show a gain or loss.

❑ To understand these gains or loss, a good knowledge of the
decibel and related measurement units is needed.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 dB in Communications
❑ The db (decibel) is a relative unit of measurement
commonly used in communications for providing a
reference for input and output levels.
❑ Power gain or loss.
❑ Decibels are used to specify measured and calculated
values in
❑ audio systems, microwave system gain calculations, satellite
system link-budget analysis, antenna power gain, light-budget
calculations and in many other communication system
measurements
❑ In each case the dB value is calculated with respect to a
standard or specified reference.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Calculation of dB
❑ The dB value is calculated by taking the log of the ratio of
the measured or calculated power (P2) with respect to a
reference power (P1).
P1 P2

❑ The result is multiplied by 10 to obtain the value in dB.

❑ It can be modified to provide a dB value based on the ratio

of two voltages. By using the power relationship P = V2/R

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Definitions of dBm and dBW
❑ dBm indicates that the specified dB level is relative to a 1
milliwatt reference.
1mW P2

P2
dBm  10
log
10
0.001W
❑ If Power is expressed in watts instead of milliwatts.
❑ the dB unit is obtained with respect to 1 watt and the dB values are
expressed as dBW.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Examples
❑ Important Note: The decibel (dB) is “the logarithm of a
power ratio” and NOT a unit of power;
❑ However, dBW and dBm are units of power in the
logarithmic system of numbers
❑ Convert the following into dBm or dBW
❑ P=1mW, P(dBm)=?
❑ P=0.1mW, P(dBm)=?
❑ P=10W, P(dBW)=?
❑ P=1W, P(dBm)=?

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 dB Hint
2mW 4mW
Network

❑ dB value=10log104/2=10log102=10×0.3010=+3.01dB≈3dB
❑ Memorize the above relationship
❑ The amplifying network has a 3-dB gain because the output
power was the double the input power

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Telephony
❑ The telephone is connected to Public switched
telecommunications network (PSTN) for local, national ,
and international voice communications
❑ The same connections can carry data and image
information (television)
❑ The connection to the PSTN may be via local exchange
carriers (LEC)
❑ End-users, nodes, and connectivities

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Voice Telephony
❑ Transmission of the human voice
❑ Voice is a sound signal
❑ Analog voice-band channel
❑ A channel that is suitable for
transmission of speech or analog
data and has the maximum usable frequency range of 300 to
3400 Hz.
❑ The local serving switch is the point of the connectivity with
the PSTN
❑ It is the point where the analog signal is digitized.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Guardband

Guardband
BW available for
Analog voice
transmission

BW of
Analog Circuit

Range of human hearing

20 300 3,400 4,000 20,000

Hertz (Hz)
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 Telephone Subset
❑ It is a device which converts human speech in the form
of sound waves produced by the vocal cord to electrical
signals. These signals are then transmitted over telephone
wires and then converted back to sound waves for human
ears.
❑ Microphone
❑ Earphone
❑ Signaling functions

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Electromagnet
Speaker diaphram Receiver
(moveable) (earpiece)

Sound Waves
Permanent magnet

Variable magnetic field

Electrical contacts

Handset

Diaphram (moveable)

Sound Waves Transmitter

(mouthpiece) RJ-11

4 Wires connectors

Granulated carbon
RJ-22 connector 2 wires

RJ-22 connector

Getting Voice Onto and Off the Network

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Telephone Handset
❑ Microphone (mouthpiece)
❑ consists of a movable speaker diaphragm that is sensitive to both
amplitude and frequency
❑ The diaphragm contains carbon particles that can conduct
electricity.
❑ As the human voice spoken into the transmitter varies, the
amount of carbon granules that strike the electrical contacts in
the mouthpiece also varies—thereby sending varying analog
electrical signals out into the voice network.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Telephone Handset
❑ Earphone (earpiece)
❑ Acts in an opposite direction to the mouthpiece.
❑ The electrical signal/waves produced by the transmitter are
received at an electromagnet in the receiver.
❑ Varying levels of electricity produce varying levels of
magnetism—that, in turn, cause the diaphragm to move in
direct proportion to the magnetic variance.
❑ The moving diaphragm produces varying sound that
corresponds to the sound waves that were input at the
transmitter.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
Conventional Telephony Operation

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 Dialing
❑ A combination of 350 Hz and 440 Hz sine waves sent to the
Telephone from the central office (CO) indicating that
the network is ready to receive calling instructions
❑ Dialing Modes: Pulse and Touch Tone or Dual-Tone-
MultiFrequency

Rotary or pulse dialing

❑ Each button sends a dual frequency sine wave
indicated by the corresponding row and column .
❑ Telephone Numbers are decided by ITU
internationally and NANP in
North America [NP – numbering plan]

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Subscriber Signaling

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Belongs to LEC
(Local-Exchange Carrier)
C.O.
Phone Phone
Local loop

Local loop

e
lin
nk

Inter-exchange LATA - B
tr u

LATA - A circuit

P.O.P. trunk line

P.O.P. C.O.
Belongs to IXC
(Inter-eXchange Carrier)
Basic Telecommunications Infrastructure

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 SS7 Signaling
❑ Common Signaling System 7, also called SS7 or C7, was developed
by the in order to increase the efficiency of the public voice
system. SS7 is a separate network whose duties are setting up,
tearing down, monitoring, and routing calls on the PSTN.
❑ SS7 is akin to TCP/IP in that it operates at several layers of the
OSI model. And, like TCP/IP, SS7 is packet-based. It is a software-
based system that operates independently of the voice transport
itself (the PSTN).
❑ SS7 works behind the scenes, so interacting with SS7 is something
that the CO switch, not your phone or PBX, must do. SS7 is
called an out-of-band signaling standard because, unlike DTMF,
it doesn't use the same frequency band, or even the same
transport, as the voice transmission.
❑ Out-of-band signaling is also called CCS, or common channel
signaling. It's the technique used by all telecommunication
vendors—including cellular phone service providers, long-distance
companies, and local exchange carriers (LECs). All of these
networks share one thing in common: a common bond in SS7.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 SS7 and PSTN

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 Subscriber Loop Design
❑ Any use of telephone channels involves two unidirectional
paths, one for transmission and one for reception.
❑ The local loop, which connects a telephone to a local
exchange is a two-wire (2W) circuit that carries the signals
in both transmission directions.
❑ Even asymmetrical digital subscriber lines (ADSLs) use this
same 2W local

❑ To connect a 2W local loop to a 4W network a circuit called

a 2W/ 4W hybrid is needed.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Subscriber Loop Design
❑ Any use of telephone channels involves two unidirectional
paths, one for transmission and one for reception.
❑ The local loop, which connects a telephone to a local
exchange is a two-wire (2W) circuit that carries the signals
in both transmission directions.
❑ Even asymmetrical digital subscriber lines (ADSLs) use this
same 2W local

❑ To connect a 2W local loop to a 4W network a circuit called

a 2W/ 4W hybrid is needed.
 Normal Signal Flow
Central Office Receive
2-Wire Direction
Local Loop
2w-4w

Hybrid

Transmit

Direction

❑ 2- to 4-wire hybrid combines receive and transmit signals over the same
pair
❑ 2-wire impedance must match 4-wire impedance

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 2. Transmission Systems
❑ Two-Wire versus Four-Wire
❑ All subscriber loops in the telephone network are
implemented with a signal pair of wires
❑ Both directions of transmission
❑ Conversations are superimposed on the wire pair
❑ Two directions of longer distances are separated
❑ Two-Wire-to-Four-Wire Conversion
❑ Basic conversion function is provided by hybrid
circuits
❑ Impedance matching is important
❑ Impedance mismatch causes “echo”

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Transmission Systems
❑ Link characteristics
❑ information carrying capacity (bandwidth)
▪ information sent as symbols
▪ 1 symbol >= 1 bit
❑ propagation delay
▪ time for electromagnetic signal to reach other end
▪ light travels at 0.7c in fiber ~8 microseconds/mile
▪ NY to SF => 20 ms; NY to London => 27 ms
❑ attenuation
▪ degradation in signal quality with distance
▪ long lines need regenerators
▪ optical amplifiers are here

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 How Does Echo Happen?
❑ Echo is due to a reflection

Central Office Receive

2-Wire Direction
Local
Loop 2w-4w
Rx and Tx
superimposed Hybrid
Transmit

Direction

Impedance Mismatch at the 2w-4w Hybrid

Is the Most Common Reason for Echo
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 Transmission Impairments
❑ Signal Attenuation
❑ Interference
❑ Coupling between wires
❑ Near-end crosstalk (NEXT) (From TX to RX at a common
location)
❑ Far-end crosstalk (FEXT) (From TX to RX at a distant
location)
❑ Noise
❑ Thermal noise - White noise with a Gaussian (Normal)
distribution of amplitudes
❑ Noise measurement is important
▪ Standard reference value is 1 pW € -90 dBm

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Transmission Impairments - Echo
❑ If only one reflection occurs, the situation is referred to as
“talker echo”
❑ If a second reflection occurs, “listener echo” results
❑ If returning the signal is repeatedly coupled back into the
forward path to produce oscillations, singing occurs.
❑ If the loop gain is greater than unity.
❑ Echo suppressor – Loss insertion to reduce echo
❑ Echo canceller –Cancel the echo signal from the return
path.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Echo Is Always Present
❑ Echo as a problem is a function of the echo delay, and the
magnitude of the echo

Echo Is Unnoticeable
(dB)

Echo Path Loss

Echo Is a Problem

Echo Path Delay (ms)

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat
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 Power Levels
❑ Read the dB Tutorial on the course web site
❑ The delivered signal power must be high enough to be clearly
perceived
❑ Not so strong that echo and singing result
❑ Transmission links are designed with specific amount of net
loss
❑ Via net loss (VNL)
❑ Transmission Levels Point (TLP) are used as a convenient means
of expressing signal loss or gain within a circuit.
❑ The TLP is a point in the circuit expressed as the ratio (in dB) of the power
of the signal at that point to the power of the signal at a reference point
(0 TLP).
❑ TLP is the measurement of the signal gain or loss relative to the 0 TLP.
❑ dBm0 = Signal Power (dBm) - TLP (dB)
❑ “0” indicates that the specification is relative to the 0-TLP.
❑ Ex: If an absolute noise power of 100 pW (20 dBrn or -70 dBm) is measured
at a -6 TLP, it is expressed as 26 dBrn0.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 dB Applied to the Voice Channel
❑ Noise and amplitude distortion
❑ Amplitude distortion is the same as frequency response.
❑ The noise annoys the listener
❑ How much noise will annoy the average listener?
❑ The human ear is a filter as is the telephone earpiece
❑ Amount of annoyance of the noise to the average listener
varies
❑ We “shape” the VF channel
as a function of frequency
❑ Weighting curve
❑ C-message response (NA)

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 dB Applied to the Voice Channel
❑ The lowest discernible signal that can be heard by a human
being is -90 dBm (800 or 1000 Hz)
❑ If noise power is measured with C-message weighting,
dBrnC0 is used.
❑ 0 dBrnC=-92 dBm (with white noise loading of entire voice
channel)

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 TLP Example
A C
B

-2 dB -13 dB -4 dB
TLP TLP
❑ Example: Using the above figure, determine each ofTLP the following: (a)
the signal power to be applied at point B to determine if points A and C
are at the proper levels; (b) the amount of gain (loss) a signal
experiences when propagating from A to C; and (c) the amount of noise
that would be measured at C if 27 dBrnC of absolute noise is
measured at B and no additional noise occurs on the B-to-C link.
❑ Solution: (a) Because point B is -13 dB TLP, the proper test tone level is
-13 dBm (0.05 mW) (b) Because the TLP values drop by 2 dBm, there is
2dB net loss from A to C. (c) An absolute measurement of 27 dBrnC at B
is 40 dBrnC0. This is also 40 dBrnC0 at C. The absolute noise power
measured at C would be 40-4=36 dBrnC.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Telephone Call
❑ Characteristics
Telephone calls can be:
❑ Local-LATA
❑ Inter-LATA
❑ Intra-LATA
❑ LATA = Local Access Transport Areas
❑ Local loop---is—analog in character.
❑ Trunk line----is—digital in character.
❑ Interexchange circuit----digital in character.

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 Class 1: Class 1:
regional centers regional centers

Class 2: Class 2:
sectional centers sectional centers

Class 3: Class 3:
primary centers primary centers

Class 4: Class 4:
toll centers toll centers

Class 5: Class 5:
local central office local central office

Tandem office

Local Local

loops loops
Representative Voice
Network Heirarchy
Residential Business Residential Business
customer customer
Localcustomer
Carrier's Domain of Influence, Intra-LATA customer
 Telephone Numbering
❑ The numbering is hierarchical, and it has an internationally
standardized country code at the highest level.
❑ An international prefix or international access number is used for
international calls. It tells the network that the connection is to
be routed via an international telephone exchange to another
country.
❑ The country code contains one to four numbers that define the
country of subscriber B. Country codes are not needed for
national calls because their purpose is to make the subscriber
identification unique in the world. A telephone number that
includes the country code is called an international number and it
has a maximum length of 12 digits.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Telephone Number
Plans
❑ 3 Basic parts of US-calls:
❑ 3-digit area code---(817)
❑ 3-digit exchange---(496)
❑ 4-digit subscriber
number---(3650)
❑ 4 Basic parts of an
International call:
❑ 011
❑ Country code
❑ City code
❑ City number

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 Telephone
❑ Each area Number
code can support:
❑ 1000 exchanges
❑ Each exchange can support:
❑ 10,000 telephone numbers
❑ Each area code can support:
❑ 103 X 104 = 107 = 10 million
phone numbers

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Is it a computer network?
❑ Specialized to carry voice
❑ Also carries
❑ video
❑ fax
❑ modem calls
❑ Internally, uses digital samples
❑ Switches and switch controllers are special purpose
computers

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Concepts
❑ Single basic service: two-way voice
❑ low end-to-end delay
❑ guarantee that an accepted call will run to completion
❑ Endpoints connected by a circuit
❑ like an electrical circuit
❑ signals flow both ways (full duplex)
❑ associated with bandwidth and buffer resources

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 The big picture

❑ Fully connected core

❑ simple routing
❑ telephone number is a hint about how to route a call
❑ but not for 800/888/700/900 numbers
❑ hierarchically allocated telephone number space

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 The pieces
1. End systems
2. Transmission
3. Switching
4. Signaling

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 1. End-systems
❑ Transducers
❑ key to carrying voice on wires
❑ Dialer
❑ Ringer
❑ Switchhook

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 Dialing
❑ Pulse
❑ sends a pulse per digit
❑ collected by central office
❑ Tone
❑ key press (feep) sends a pair of tones = digit
❑ also called Dual Tone Mutifrequency (DTMF)

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 Transmission: Multiplexing
❑ Trunks between central offices carry hundreds
of conversations
❑ Can’t run thick bundles!
❑ Instead, send many calls on the same wire
❑ multiplexing
❑ Analog multiplexing (Frequency Division
Multiplexing)
❑ bandlimit call to 4 KHz and frequency shift onto higher
bandwidth trunk
❑ Obsolete
❑ Digital multiplexing
❑ first convert voice to samples
❑ 1 sample = 8 bits of voice
❑ 8000 samples/sec => call = 64 Kbps
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 Transmission: Digital multiplexing
❑ Time division multiplexing
❑ trunk carries bits at a faster bit rate than inputs
❑ n input streams, each with a 1-byte buffer
❑ output interleaves samples
❑ need to serve all inputs in the time it takes one sample to
arrive
❑ => output runs n times faster than input
❑ overhead bits mark end of frame

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Transmission: Multiplexing
❑ Multiplexed trunks can be multiplexed further
❑ Need a standard
❑ US/Japan standard is called Digital Signaling hierarchy (DS)

Digital Number of Number of voice Bandwidth

Signal previous circuits
Number level
circuits
DS0 1 64 Kbps
DS1 24 24 1.544Mbps
DS2 4 96 6.312 Mbps
DS3 7 672 44.736 Mbps
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 Transmission: Link technologies
❑ Many in use today
❑ twisted pair
❑ coax cable
❑ terrestrial microwave
❑ satellite microwave
❑ optical fiber
❑ Increasing amount of bandwidth and cost per foot
❑ Popular
❑ fiber
❑ satellite

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 Transmission: fiber optic links
❑ Wonderful stuff!
❑ lots of capacity
❑ nearly error free
❑ very little attenuation
❑ hard to tap
❑ A long thin strand of very pure glass

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Transmission: satellites
❑ Long distances at high bandwidth
❑ Geosynchronous
❑ 36,000 km in the sky
❑ up-down propagation delay of 250 ms
❑ bad for interactive communication
❑ slots in space limited
❑ Non-geosynchronous (Low Earth
Orbit)
❑ appear to move in the sky
❑ need more of them
❑ handoff is complicated
❑ e.g. Iridium

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 3. Switching
❑ Problem:
❑ each user can potentially call any other user
❑ can’t have direct lines!
❑ Switches establish temporary circuits
❑ Switching systems come in two parts: switch and switch
controller

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Switching: what does a switch do?
❑ Transfers data from an input to an output
❑ many ports (up to 200,000 simultaneous calls)`
❑ need high speeds
❑ Some ways to switch:
❑ space division
❑ if inputs are multiplexed, need a schedule (why?)

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 Switching
❑ Another way to switch
❑ time division (time slot interchange or TSI)
❑ also needs scheduling

❑ To build larger switches we combine space and time

division switching elements

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

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 4. Signaling
❑ Recall that a switching system has a switch and a switch
controller
❑ Switch controller is in the control plane
❑ does not touch voice samples
❑ Most common control signals
❑ Dial tone, ringback, and busy tone
❑ Supervisory (conveying status) & information bearing
signals
❑ Manages the network
❑ call routing (collect dialstring and forward call)
❑ alarms (ring bell at receiver)
❑ billing
❑ directory lookup (for 800/888 calls)

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 Signaling network
❑ Switch controllers are special purpose computers
❑ Linked by their own internal computer network
❑ Common Channel Interoffice Signaling (CCIS) network
❑ Earlier design used in-band tones, but was severely hacked
❑ Also was very inflexible
❑ Messages on CCIS conform to Signaling System 7 (SS7) spec.

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Cellular communication
❑ Mobile phone talks to a base station on a particular radio
frequency
❑ Aren’t enough frequencies to give each mobile a permanent
frequency (like a wire)
❑ Reuse
❑ temporal
❑ if mobile is off, no frequency assigned to it
❑ spatial
❑ mobiles in non-adjacent cells can use the same frequency

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Challenges for the telephone
network
❑ Multimedia
❑ simultaneously transmit voice/data/video over the network
❑ people seem to want it
❑ existing network can’t handle it
❑ bandwidth requirements
❑ burstiness in traffic (TSI can’t skip input)
❑ change in statistical behavior
❑ Backward compatibility of new services
❑ huge existing infrastructure

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak
 Challenges
❑ Convergent Solution
❑ future telephone networks will be of single infrastructure
supporting integrated services
❑ how to manage the transition
❑ Inefficiencies in the existing system
❑ special-purpose systems of the past
❑ ‘legacy’ systems
❑ need to change them without
breaking the network

EE4367 Telecom. Switching & Transmission Prof. Murat

Torlak