Chapter 2

Digital Switching
Systems
By E.
By Kedir Hailu B.
 Introduction
The incorporation of digital switching and
transmission technique into
telecommunications altered the whole
telecommunication industries setup.
A switching system is called digital when the
input to and output from the switching
system can directly support digital signal
 introduction
 Digital switching system is based on stored
program control (SPC).
 The SPC systems have temporary memory for
storing transient call information and to carry
programming information.
 The SPC performs line control, trunk
control, ancillary control, maintenance control
etc
 The instructions required for performing these
operations are resided in a single processor
Introduction
 Digital Signal
• A digital signal is a discrete signal.
characteristics of digital signals
 Holds a fixed value for a specific length of
time.
 has sharp, abrupt changes
A preset number of values allowed.
 Digitization
The process of converting analog signal
into digital signals .

The process of digitization.

 Motivation of digital switching?
• Reduce cost for operating company
• Lower maintenance
• Reduced floor space
• Simplified expansion
• Lower manufacturing costs
 Switching functions
• Depends upon a particular, three switch
categories
Line to line switching : direct connections b/n
subscriber loops at end office or b/n stations
Transient (tandem)switching :use to set up
from a specific incoming (originating) line to
an outgoing line to trunk
 Space Division Switching
• The paths in the circuit are separated from
each other spatially. i.e Separate physical paths
• Developed for analog environment
• based on Crossbar switch
Arrangement of space division switching
1. Rectangular : it is designed to provide
intergroup to outlet group
N2-N cross points
Space Division Switch
 Space division switch
Application of Rectangular
Remote concentrations
Call distribution
Portion of PBX or end –office switching
Single stage switching
2 . Triangular /diagonal switching
 Number of x points decreased to (N2-N)/2
Single stage space division switching

• Characteristics single stage switching

• Number of cross points grows as square of number of
stations increases
 Loss of cross point prevents connection
 Inefficient use of cross points
• All stations connected, only a few cross points in use
 It is Non-blocking
 Large capacitive load
 Less signaling requirement from the network.
 Multistage switching
• Multistage switching allows sharing x-points
by more than one users
• Note : If a particular x point is shared by more
than one potential connection, then
 The number of x-points decrease & increases
utilization
 Multistage switching
•
Multistage switch

Less no. of cross points are needed.
More than one route for a connection.
 More signaling from the network.
 A blocking switching type (voice)
 Three-stage Space division switching
• Large switch built from multiple stages of small switches
• The n inputs to a first-stage switch share k paths through intermediate
crossbar switches
• Larger k (more intermediate switches) means more paths to output
• Number of cross points :2(N/n)nk + k (N/n)2 crosspoints.

n×k
1 N/n1× N/n k×n
1

n×k k×n
2
N/n 2× N/n
N 2 N
inputs n×k k×n outputs
3 3

…
…
…

n×k
N/n
k×n
N/n
N/nk× N/n

How many intermediate switches

15
required to make switch nonblocking?
 Non-Blocking Condition: k=2n-1
 Request connection from last input to input switch j to last output in output
switch m
 Worst Case: All other inputs have seized top n-1 middle switches AND all
other outputs have seized next n-1 middle switches
 If k=2n-1, there is another path left to connect desired input to desired
output

nxk
1 N/n1 x N/n kxn
1
…

…
n-1
Desired N/n x N/n kxn Desired
nxk
j
busy n-1 m
input output
N/n x N/n n-1
…

…
n+1 busy
# internal links
N/n x N/n = 2x # external
2n-2
links
nxk kxn
Free path N/n2n-1x N/n Free path
N/n
N/n
16
 Minimum Complexity Switch
C(n) = number of crosspoints in for non-blocking switch

( ) ( )
2 2
= 2 Nk + k N = 2 N (2n − 1) + (2n − 1) N
n n
Differentiate with respect to n:

dC 2N 2 2N 2 2N 2 N
0= = 4N − 2 + 3 ≈ 4N − 2 ⇒ n ≈
dn n n n 2
The minimized number of crosspoints is then:

This is lower than N2 for large N

17
 Blocking Probabilities
 Strictly non-blocking switches are rarely needed in most voice
telephone networks.
 Switching systems and the number of circuits in interoffice trunk
groups are sized to service most requests (not all) as they occur
 Economics dictates that network implementations have limited
capacities that occasionally exceeded during peak-traffic situations
 Equipment for the public telephone network is designed to
provide a certain maximum probability of blocking for the busiest
hour of the day.
 Grade of service of the telephone company depends on the
blocking probability, availability, transmission quality, and delay
 Residential lines are busy 5-10% of the time during the busy hour
 Network-blocking occurrences on the order of 1% during the busy
hour do not represent a significant reduction in the ability to
communicate since the called party is much more likely to have
been busy anyway.
 Evaluation of Blocking Probability
• Probability graphs as proposed C. Y. Lee
• Simplifying approximations are needed
• Formulas directly relate to the underlying network structures
• P -represents the fraction of the time that a particular link is in
use (or p is the probability that a link is busy)
q=1-p is the probability that the link is idle.
When any one of n parallel links can be used to complete a
• When any one of n parallel links can be used to complete a
• connection, the composite blocking probability B is the
probability that all links are busy
• When a series of n links are all needed to complete a
connection, the blocking probability is mostly determined as 1
minus the probability that they are all available
 Probability Graph
• Any particular connection can be established with k different paths
• One through each center-stage array

• where k=number of center-stage arrays

• q’=probability that an interstage link is idle, =1-p’
• If the probability p that an inlet is busy is known, the probability p’ that an
interstage link is busy can be determined as

There are β=k/n times as many interstage links as there are inlets and outlets.
The percentage of interstage links that are busy is reduced by the factor β. If β is
less than 1, then the first stage is concentrating the incoming traffic.
 Three--Stage Switch Design
• The blocking probability of a three-stage
switch in terms of the inlet utilization p:
 Time division Switching
• Time-division switching permits sharing of x-points for a short
period of time
• TD switching can be used by analog & digital signals
• Digital TD switching has lesser size of matrix than that of analog system
Time slot interchanging(TSI) involves moving data contained in
each time slot from the incoming bit stream to an outgoing bit
stream but with different time slot arrangement in
accordance with the destination of each time slot.
• Three basic functional blocks of a time switch are:
– Memory for speech
– Memory for control
– Time-slot counter or processor
 Time division switching
• Mostly all modern circuit switches are time-division switches.
•
Time-slot interexchange (TSI)
•
It is based on synchronous TDM.
•
Multiple low speed inputs share a high speed line.
•
There is no need for address bits in each slot (synchronous)
•
The slot could be a bit, a byte or a longer block.
 Time-Slot Interchange (TSI) Switching
• Write bytes from arriving TDM stream into memory
• Read bytes in permuted order into outgoing TDM stream
• Max # slots = 125 µsec / (2 x memory cycle time)

1 a
Read slots
2 b according to
3 connection
permutation
d c … b a 
b a … d c
24 23 2 1 Write
24 23 2 1
slots in 22
order of 23 c
Incoming arrival Outgoing
TDM 24 d TDM
stream stream

Time-slot interchange 24
 Time Switch…
• There are two choices in handling the time-
switch:
– Sequential write, random read
• The time slots are written into the speech memory as
they appear in the incoming bit stream
– Random write, sequential read
• The incoming time slots are written into memory in the
order of appearance in the outgoing bit stream
 Time Switch…
• The writing of incoming time slots into speech
memory can be controlled by a simple time
slot counter.
• The readout of the speech memory is
controlled by the control memory.
• The memory has as many cells as there are
time slots.
 Combination of T and S
• To increase the simultaneous connectivity time and space
switches are combined.
• (a)Time-Space-Time (TST) switch
 Time-Space-Time (TST) switch…
• Space array is sandwiched between set of TSI
switches
• First T-stage interchanges time-slots in time-domain
between external incoming digital channels and the
subsequent space-stage.
• Space-stage provides connectivity between the time
stages at the input and output i.e acts as a multiplier
of call-handling capacity.
 Time-Space-Time (TST) switch…
• Space-stage time slots need not have any
relation to either external incoming or
outgoing time-slots regarding numbering or
position.
• Blocking probability can be minimized if
number of space-stage, time slots is large.
 Example: T-S-T Switch Design
For N = 960
• Single stage space switch ~ 1 million crosspoints
• T-S-T
– Let n = 120 N/n = 8 TSIs
– k = 2n – 1 = 239 for non-blocking
– Pick k = 240 time slots
– Need 8x8 time-multiplexed space switch

For N = 96,000
• T-S-T
– Let n = 120 k = 239
– N / n = 800
– Need 800x800 space switch

33
 Time-Space-Time Hybrid Switch
• Use TSI in first & third stage; Use crossbar in middle
 Replace n input x k output space switch by TSI switch that takes n-slot input
frame and switches it to k-slot output frame

nxk N/n x N/n kxn

1 1
1

nxk
N 2
Input TDM Output TDM
inputs frame with n frame with k
nxk slots 1
slots
3
2
…


n … 2 1 k … 2 1
n
nxk
N/n

Time-slot interchange

34
 Flow of time slots between switches
First slot First slot
n 1× k N/n × N/n k ×1 n
1

n2× k k 2× n
N/n × N/n
2

…
…
…

nN/n× k ×n
kN/n
N/n × N/n
k
kth slot kth slot

• Only one space switch active in each time slot 35

 Time-Share the Crossbar Switch
TSI stage Space stage TSI stage
TDM TDM TDM kxn
n slots
nxk k slots 1
1 k slots

n slots nxk kxn

N 2 N/n x N/n 2
N
inputsn slots nxk Time-shared kxn outputs
3 space switch 3
…

…
n slots
nxk kxn
N/n N/n

• Interconnection pattern of space switch is reconfigured

every time slot
• Very compact design: fewer lines because of TDM & less
space because of time-shared crossbar 36
 Example: A→2, B→4, C→1, D→3
(a)
A C
B A
3-stage
Space
Switch C D
D B

(b)
B2 A2 B1 A1 B1 A1 C1 A1 A1 C1
2x3 3x2
1 1

Equivale
nt TST
Switch D1 B1 B1 D1
D2 C2 D1 C1 D1 C1 3x2
2x3 2 37
2
 Space-Time-Space (STS) switch

• A STS switch consists of a space cross-points matrix at the

input followed by an array of time-slot interchangers whose
ports feed another cross-point matrix at the output
• Example
STS
 TST compared to STS
• Both TST and STS switches can be designed with identical call-
carrying capacity and blocking probabilities.
• The architecture of TST switching is more complex than STS
switching with space concentration.
• The TST switch becomes more cost-effective b/c time
expansion can be achieved at less cost than space expansion.
 TST compared to STS
• TST switches have a distinct advantage of implementation
over STS switches when a large amount of traffic must be
handled.
• For small switches STS is favored due to reduced
implementation complexities.
• Generally STS implementations are simpler b/c of simpler
control requirements.
The End

Questions?