TELEPHONE INSTRUMENTS

AND SIGNALS
 INTRODUCTION

Communications - the process of conveying information from one place to

another
Telecommunications - long-distance communications

Telephone system - for conveying human speech information (voice) as well as

transporting data

Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)

- interconnects subscribers through one or more switches
- comprised of several very large corporations and hundreds of
smaller independent companies jointly referred to as Telco
Short History of the Telephone:
The telephone system as we know it today began as an unlikely collaboration of two men with
widely disparate personalities: Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas A. Watson. Bell, born in 1847 in
Edinburgh, Scotland, emigrated to Ontario, Canada, in 1870, where he lived for only six months
before moving to Boston, Massachusetts. Watson was born in a livery stable owned by his father in
Salem, Massachusetts. The two met characteristically in 1874 and invented the telephone in 1876.
On March 10, 1876, one week after his patent was allowed, Bell first succeeded in transmitting
speech in his lab at 5 Exeter Place in Boston. At the time, Bell was 29 years old and Watson only
22. Bell’s patent, number 174,465, has been called the most valuable ever issued.
Highlights:

1877 – only 6 telephones in the whole world

1881 – 3,000 telephones produced revenues
1883 - over 133,000 are used in the US alone

1881 – Bell and Watson left the company which now become the AT & T

1992 – AT & T (AT&T officially divested the Bell System on January 1, 1983 Bell Laboratories)
has an asset of US$ 250 Billion as compared to Microsoft in 1998 with an asset
of US$ 10 Billion

Today – 1.5 Billion telephones are operating in the world

 THE SUBSCRIBER LOOP

Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS) - simplest and most straightforward form of telephone service

local subscriber loop – also known local loop

- an unshielded twisted pair transmission line (cable pair)
consisting of two insulated conductors twisted together

polyethylene plastic coating

Conductor - 116- to 26-gauge copper wire

STANDARD TELEPHONE SET

Tele – afar
Phone -“sound,” “voice,” or “voiced sound
elephone:

Definition: An apparatus for reproducing sound, especially that of the human voice (speech),
at a great distance, by means of electricity; consisting of transmitting and receiving
instruments connected by a line or wire which conveys the electric current
Speech - sound in motion

1878 – a Butterstamp telephone that incorporates the transmitter and receiver into one
device was created

1937 - 302-type telephone set, telephone with the hand-crank magneto, fixed microphone,
hand-held earphone, and no dialing mechanism

1951 – rotary dial telephone set was introduced by Western Electric Company, became the
industry standard for forty (40) years known as the Bell System 500-type
 500-type
Rotary dial tone 2500 type
302-type Touch - Tone
Hand cranked magneto
Quality of Telephone transmission depends on:
1. received volume
2. relative frequency response of the telephone circuit
3. degree of interference

depends on:

1. The translation of acoustic pressure into an electrical signal

2. The losses of the two customer local loops, the central telephone office equipment,
3. The cables between central telephone offices Telephone Instruments and Signals
4. The translation of the electrical signal at the receiving telephone set to acoustic
pressure
Functions of the Telephone Set
1. Notify the subscriber when there is an incoming call with an audible signal, such as a bell, or with a
visible signal, such as a flashing light. This signal is analogous to an interrupt signal on a
microprocessor, as its intent is to interrupt what you are doing. These signals are purposely made
annoying enough to make people want to answer the telephone as soon as possible.
2. Provide a signal to the telephone network verifying when the incoming call has been acknowledged and
answered (i.e., the receiver is lifted off hook).
3. Convert speech (acoustical) energy to electrical energy in the transmitter and vice versa in the
receiver. Actually, the microphone converts the acoustical energy to mechanical energy, which is then
converted to electrical energy. The speaker performs the opposite conversions.
4. Incorporate some method of inputting and sending destination telephone numbers (either mechanically
or electrically) from the telephone set to the central office switch over the local loop. This is
accomplished using either rotary dialers (pulses) or Touch-Tone pads (frequency tones).
5. Regulate the amplitude of the speech signal the calling person outputs onto the telephone line. This
prevents speakers from producing signals high enough in amplitude to interfere with other people’s
conversations taking place on nearby cable pairs (crosstalk).
6. Incorporate some means of notifying the telephone office when a subscriber wishes to place an
outgoing call (i.e., handset lifted off hook). Subscribers cannot dial out until they receive a dial tone
from the switching machine.
7. Ensure that a small amount of the transmit signal is fed back to the speaker, enabling talkers to hear
themselves speaking. This feedback signal is sometimes called sidetone or talkback. Sidetone helps
prevent the speaker from talking too loudly.
8. Provide an open circuit (idle condition) to the local loop when the telephone is not in use (i.e., on hook)
and a closed circuit (busy condition) to the local loop when the telephone is in use (off hook).
9. Provide a means of transmitting and receiving call progress signals between the central office switch
and the subscriber, such as on and off hook, busy, ringing, dial pulses, Touch-Tone signals, and dial
tone.
Telephone Set, Local Loop, and Central Office Switching
Machines
tip and ring - come from the 1 ⁄4-inch-diameter two-conductor phone plugs and patch
cords used at telephone company switchboards to interconnect and test circuits

Sleeve – the third wire

RJ-11 – replaced the tip and ring RJ - Registered Jack

- can have up to 6 conductors - for series of connection interfaces
(receptacles and plugs)
- 3 ⁄16-inch-by-3 ⁄16-inch body
- standard of US FCC

Jack - describes both the receptacle and the

plug and sometimes specifies only the receptacle

- Only one (1) pair is used for a standard telephone circuit to operate
- other four wires can be used for a second telephone line and/or for some other special function
Why dc instead of ac?

(1)to prevent power supply hum

(2)to allow service to continue in the event of a power outage
(3)because people were afraid of ac

Why -48 VDC is used?

• to minimize electrolytic corrosion on the loop wires

• Used for supervisory signalling

• Provide talk battery for the microphone in the telephone set

examples of supervisory signal:

1. On-hook
2. off-hook
3. dial pulsing
Block Diagram of a Telephone Set
Ringer circuit
- originally an electromagnetic bell, is placed directly across the tip and ring of the local
loop since August 1, 1878 where Thomas Watson got its patent
- around
- to alert the destination party of incoming calls
- Today, ringing signals can be any imaginable sound, including buzzing, a beeping,
a chiming, or your favorite melody

On/off hook circuit

- sometimes called a switch hook
- simple single-throw, double-pole (STDP) switch placed across the tip and ring
- Switch open  on-hook (not used)
- Switch closed  of-hook (used/handset lifted)

Equalizer circuit
- Combinations of passive components (resistors, capacitors, and so on) that
are used to regulate the amplitude and frequency response of the voice
signals
- helps solve an important transmission problem in telephone set design,
namely, the interdependence of the transmitting and receiving efficiencies
and the wide range of transmitter currents caused by a variety of local loop
cables with different dc resistances.
Speaker
- the receiver for the telephone
- converts electrical signals received from the local loop to acoustical signals
(sound waves) that can be heard and understood by a human being
- typically enclosed in the handset of the telephone along with the microphone

Microphone

- the transmitter for the telephone

- The microphone converts acoustical signals in the form of sound pressure waves
from the caller to electrical signals that are transmitted into the telephone
networkthrough the local subscriber loop
Hybrid network
- sometimes called a hybrid coil or duplex coil
- a special balanced transformer used to convert a two-wire circuit (the local loop) into a
four-wire circuit (the telephone set) and vice versa, thus enabling full duplex operation
over a two-wire circuit.
- Separates the transmitted signals from the received signals
 Outgoing voice signals are typically in the 1-V to 2-V range, while incoming voice
signals are typically half that value
- allow a small portion of the transmit signal to be returned to the receiver in the form of
a sidetone.
 Insufficient sidetone causes the speaker to raise his voice, making the telephone
conversation seem unnatural. Too much sidetone causes the speaker to talk too
Dialing circuit
softly, thereby reducing the volume that the listener receives
- enables the subscriber to output signals representing digits, and this enables the
caller to enter the destination telephone number
- could be a rotary dialer  a switch connected to a mechanical rotating mechanism
that controls the number and duration of the on/off condition of the switch
- It could also be either an electronic dial-pulsing circuit or a Touch-Tone keypad which
sends various combinations of tones representing the called digits.
TELEPHONE CALL PROCEDURE
Loop Start Operation

When the calling party’s telephone set goes off hook (i.e., lifting the handset off the
cradle), the switch hook in the telephone set is released, completing a dc path between the
tip and the ring of the loop through the microphone. The ESS machine senses a dc current
in the loop and recognizes this as an off-hook condition.

Loop Resistance – typically up to 1300 ohms

Telephone impedance – 500 ohms up to 1000 ohms
10 Steps:

Step 1 Calling station goes off hook.

Step 2 After detecting a dc current flow on the loop, the switching machine returns an audible dial tone to the
calling station,
acknowledging that the caller has access to the switching machine.
Step 3 The caller dials the destination telephone number using one of two methods: mechanical dial pulsing or,
more likely,
electronic dual-tone multifrequency (Touch-Tone) signals.
Step 4 When the switching machine detects the first dialed number, it removes the dial tone from the loop.
Step 5 The switch interprets the telephone number and then locates the local loop for the destination telephone
number.
Step 6 Before ringing the destination telephone, the switching machine tests the destination loop for dc current
to see if it is idle
(on hook) or in use (off hook). At the same time, the switching machine locates a signal path through the
switch between
the two local loops.
Step 7a If the destination telephone is off hook, the switching machine sends a station busy signal back to the
calling station.
Step 7b If the destination telephone is on hook, the switching machine sends a ringing signal to the destination
telephone on the
local loop and at the same time sends a ring back signal to the calling station to give the caller some
assurance that
something is happening.
Step 8 When the destination answers the telephone, it completes the loop, causing dc current to flow.
Step 9 The switch recognizes the dc current as the station answering the telephone. At this time, the switch
CALL PROGRESS TONES AND SIGNALS
- acknowledgment and status signals
- can be sent from machines to machines, machines to people, and people to
machines
Signaling

Two kinds:
1. station signalling
- exchange of signaling messages over local loops between stations (telephones)
and telephone company switching machines
2. interoffice signalling
- exchange of signaling messages between switching machines

Four categories:
1. Alerting - request of service, i.e. going off hook or ringing the destination telephone
2. Supervising - provide call status information, such as busy or ring-back signals
3. Controlling - provide information in the form of announcements, such as number
changed to another number, a number no longer in service, and so on
4. Addressing - provide the routing information, such as calling and called numbers
Dial Tone
- informs subscribers that they have acquired access to the electronic switching machine and can
now dial or use Touch-Tone in a destination telephone number

Siemens Company – the first to introduce dial tone in Germany in 1908.

Breaking dial tone - removal of dial tone after the subscriber dials the called party
number.

No dial tone – when there are more subscribers requesting access to the switching
machine than the
Dual-Tone MultiFrequency
switching machine (DTMF)
can handle at one time.
- first introduced in 1963 with 10 buttons in Western Electric 1500-type telephones
- originally called Touch-Tone
- a simple two-of-eight encoding scheme where each digit is represented by the
linear addition of two frequencies
- strictly for signaling between a subscriber’s location and the nearest telephone
office or message switching center
- Different from multifrequency signaling (MF), which is a two-of-six code designed to
be used only to convey information between two electronic switching machines
- Same length of time in dialing each number
- eliminates the impulse noise produced from the mechanical switches
- DTMF tones will pass through an exchange to the switching system attached to the
called number (dial pulses cannot)
The frequency tolerance of the oscillators is .5%.
 - The letters were originally used to identify one local telephone exchange from
another such as BR for Bronx, MA for Manhattan, and so on. Today, the letters are
used to personalize telephone numbers. For example; 1-800-UPS-MAIL equates to the
telephone number 1-800-877-6245

- The eight frequencies were purposely chosen so that there is absolutely no harmonic
relationship between any of them, thus eliminating the possibility of one frequency
producing a harmonic that might be misinterpreted as another frequency
Speed and control - major advantages for the subscriber in using Touch-Tone signaling over
dial pulsing

Echo – signal not totally absorbed by the switch and is returned to the subscriber
Multifrequency

- similar to DTMF signals in that they involve the simultaneous transmission of two
tones
- Used to transfer digits and control signals between switching machines, whereas
DTMF signals are used to transfer digits and control signals between telephone
sets and local switching machines
- Frequencies fall within voice band so its can propagate on the same circuit (inband
signaling)  replaced by outband signaling
- The calling number is sent first, followed by the called number
The key pulse (KP) signal - used to indicate the beginning of a sequence of MF digits

start (ST) signal - used to indicate the end of a sequence of dialed digits
- indicates the beginning of the processing of the signal

IDLE signal – used to indicate the circuit is not currently in use

Example: KP 3 1 5 7 3 6 1 0 5 3 ST is the sequence transmitted for the telephone number 315-

736-1053
Dial Pulses
- sometimes called rotary dial pulsing
- method originally used to transfer digits from a telephone set to the local switch
Station Busy

station - a telephone set

station busy signal – off hook
- two-tone signal comprised of 480 Hz and 620 Hz
- The two tones are on for 0.5 seconds, then off for 0.5 seconds
- a busy signal repeats at a 60-pulse-per-minute (ppm) rate

Equipment Busy

equipment busy signal - sometimes called a congestion tone or a no-circuits-available tone

- equipment unavailability (i.e., all the circuits, switches, or switching paths
are already in use)  blocking
- uses the same two frequencies as the station busy signal, except the
equipment busy signal is on for 0.2 seconds and off for 0.3 seconds (120
ppm)
- repeats at twice the rate as a station busy signal

fast busy - equipment busy (can’t complete)

slow busy – station busy
Ringing
• purpose of the ringing signal is to ring the bell or any audible mechanism (tone oscillator
circuit) in the telephone set to alert the subscriber that there is an incoming call
• a 20-Hz, 90-Vrms signal that is on for 2 seconds and then off for 4 seconds

Ring-Back
• sent back to the calling party at the same time the ringing signal is sent to the called
party to give some assurance to the calling party that the destination telephone
number has been accepted, processed, and is being rung
• an audible combination of two tones at 440 Hz and 480 Hz that are on for 2 seconds
and then off for 4 seconds
Receiver On/Off Hook
on hook – not being used
- local loop is open, and there is no current flowing on the loop
- used to terminate a call and initiate a disconnect
off hook - a switch closes in the telephone that completes a dc path between the two
wires of
the local loop
- a dc current flows on the loop (nominally between 20 mA and 80 mA)
- The switching machine will respond to the off-hook condition by placing an
audible dial
tone on the loop
Other Nonessential Signaling and Call Progress Tones
Ex. call waiting tones, caller waiting tones, calling card service tones, comfort tones, hold
tones,
intrusion tones, stutter dial tone (for voice mail), and receiver off-hook tones (also
called howler
tones)
CORDLESS TELEPHONES
- telephones that operate without cords attached to the handset
- Originate in 1980
- occupied a narrow band of frequencies near 1.7 MHz, just above the AM broadcast band, and
used the 117-vac, 60-Hz household power line for an antenna
- used frequency modulation (FM) and were poor quality and susceptible to interference from
fluorescent lights and automobile ignition systems
- Full duplex

1984 – FCC assigned 46-MHz to 49-MHz band

- 10 full-duplex channels
1990 - 902-MHz to 928-MHz band  higher SNR
- transmit and receive over narrowband FM (NBFM) channels spaced 30 kHz to 100 kHz
apart, depending
on the modulation and frequency band used
- FM and SST digital modulation
- Digitally modulated SST telephones offer higher quality and more security than FM
telephones
1995 – has 15 duplex channel
- include frequencies in the 43-MHz to 44-MHz band
1998 - 2.4-GHz band
- Adaptive differential pulse code modulation and spread spectrum technology (SST) are
used
- Maximum transmit power for both base station and portable unit is
500 mW
- Maximum useful range is 100 feet
- to achieve excellent sound quality, cordless telephones use digital
modulation and twin-band transmission (for extended range)

for twin band transmission:

- base station transmit in 2.4 GHz while portable units
transmit in the 902 MHz to 928 MHz
CALLER ID
- enables the destination station of a telephone call to display the name and telephone
number of the calling party before the telephone is answered (i.e.,while the telephone is
ringing)
- Simplex
- using Bell System 202-compatible modems (ITU V.23 standard)
- specifies a 1200-bps FSK (frequency shift keying) signal with
mark frequency (fm) = 1200-Hz mark frequency
space frequency (fs) = 2200-Hz space frequency
• to ensure detection of the caller ID signal, the telephone must ring at
least twice before being answering
- caller ID data field uses extended ASCII coded characters to represent:
a. Month code (01 through 12)
b. Day Code - two-character (01 through 31)
c. Hour code - two-character in local military time (00 through 23)
d. Minute code - two-character minute code (00 through 59)
e. caller’s name and telephone number - variable-length code

ASCII coded digits - comprised of two independent hex characters (eight bits each)
first hex character - always 3 (0011 binary)
second hex character - represents a digit between 0 and 9 (0000 to 1001
binary)

Example:
30 hex (0011 0000 binary) = digit 0
31 hex (0011 0001 binary) = digit 1
39 hex (0011 1001 binary) = digit 9
Example 1
Interpret the following hex code for a caller ID message (start and stop bits
are not included in the hex codes):

04 12 31 31 32 37 31 35 35 37 33 31 35 37 33 36 31 30 35 33 xx

Solution:
04—message type word
12—18 decimal (18 characters in the caller ID data field)
31, 31—ASCII code for 11 (the month of November)
32, 37—ASCII code for 27 (the 27th day of the month)
31, 35—ASCII code for 15 (the 15th hour—3:00 P.M.)
35, 37—ASCII code for 57 (57 minutes after the hour—3:57 P.M.)
33, 31, 35, 37, 33, 36, 31, 30, 35, 33—10-digit

ASCII-coded telephone number (315 736–1053)

xx—checksum (00 hex to FF hex)
ELECTRONIC TELEPHONES
PAGING SYSTEMS
- Early paging systems used FM
- most modern paging systems use FSK or PSK
- transmit bit rates between 200 bps and 6400 bps
- carrier frequency bands:
 138 MHz to 175 MHz
 267 MHz to 284 MHz
 310 MHz to 330 MHz
 420 MHz to 470 MHz
 several frequency slots within the 900-MHz band.
 3 classifications of paging system:
1. Narrow-area paging system – also called local paging system
- Operate within a building or building complex
2. Mid-area paging system – also called regional paging system
- can cover several square miles
- one centrally located high-power transmitter can cover a relatively
large geographic area, typically between 6 and 10 miles in
diameter
3. wide-area paging system – can operate worldwide

Features:
3. Uses FSK or PSK modulation technique
4. Transmit bit rate-between 200 bps and 6400 bps with the following carrier
frequency bands:
a. 138 MHz to 175 MHz
b. 267 MHz to 284 MHz
c. 310 MHz to 330 MHz
d. 420 MHz to 470 MHz
e. Several frequency slots within the 900-MHz band
3. Alphanumeric messages are limited to between 20 and 40 characters in length
Cap code – special code assigned to portable pager
- sequence of digits or a combination of digits and letters
- broadcasted along with the paging party’s telephone number

Early Paging Systems:

1. POCSAG – Post Office Code Standardication Advisory Group
- developed by British Post Office
- transmitted a two-level FSK signal
- uses an asynchronous protocol which required a long preamble
for synchronization
* begins with a long dotting sequence (sometimes called a
dotting comma) to establish a clock synchronization
- data rate is 512 bps, 1200 bps, and 2400 bps
- must operate in the always-on mode all the time which means the pager
wastes much of its power resources on nondata preamble bits

2. ERMES – protocol develped by ETSI (European Telecommunications Standard

Institute) in early 1980’s
- transmit data rate is 6250 bps using four-level FSK (3125 baud)
- synchronous protocol which requires less time to synchronize
- supports 16 25-kHz paging channels in each of its frequency bands
3. FLEX – developed in 1990s
- designed to minimize power consumption in the portable pager by
using a synchronous time-slotted protocol to transmit messages
in precise time slots
- each frame is comprised of 128 data frames which are transmitted only
one during a 4-minute period, each frame lasts for 1.875 seconds
and includes:
* two synchronizing sequences
* a header containing frame information and pager identification
address
* 11 discrete data blocks

home frame – frame assigned to each portable pagers within the frame
cycle that it checks for transmitted messages
wakeup time – time when the pager operates for only a few seconds
every 4 minutes and where the pager is in high powered
standby mode

* power saver