Part 1 EEE544 Notes
Telephone and Telegraph Systems Wk1 to Wk8
Telegraph is a communications system in which information is transmitted through a
series of electrical current pulses, usually in the form of Morse code. The basic components
include a source of direct current, a transmission system, and a current-indicating device
such as a relay, buzzer, or light bulb.
The message to be transmitted is normally collected at a Post Office where charges are also
collected. The messages are passed to the telegraph operators who do transmit the
information using Morse code and the transmission facilities available such as wire, cline
carrier systems or radio communications.
The telegraph service was very much used in the past to communicate events. Incidents
and news. It is today replaced by internet where short message system (sms) and
electronic mail has taken over. In times of disaster where infrastructure is destroyed, radio
armatures can revert to telegraph system to convey important communications.
Telephone system is voice communication system and was well realized with the invention of a
practical telephone by the American A. G. Bell in March 1876. Telephone communication was
provided by connecting telephone to telephone over wires but as the numbers increased the
connections became messy and telephone exchanges became necessary. Special feature in
telephones was the separation between the microphone and earphone circuits. This is called a
hybrid circuit. Telephone development has come a long way as follows;-
-starting with a magneto telephone which required you to turn a handle to generate a
current to drop an indicator at the manual board to signify that you need attention from the
operator
- then a rotary dial telephone with capability of pulse dialing 1-0 where 0 represented 10.
-then a key pad telephone
-then a keypad telephone with capability for alphanumeric tone dialing
- 4w telephones
- todays IP phones.
Telephone Exchanges
Started as manual switchboards where magneto phones were used. For the operator to
connect calls he/she used cords, sent a ring tone to alert a subscriber that a call was being
connected and also the operator terminated the calls. The operator would also prepare a
ticket to show that a call was made from this number to that number, showing date, time
and charges for the call.
The next witching generation was what is called step by step (SxS) or Strowger
exchanges. Rotary dial telephones were connected to these exchanges and a digit dialed
caused movement of the selectors on the switching banks to move up steps corresponding
to digit dialed. Another digit dialed would also cause the selector to move round the
number of steps corresponding to the digit dialed. This would continue depending on the
capacity of the exchange. The larger the capacity the more the switching stages.
These switches were however limited in that they did not have timing, information storage
and call termination was only by the originating caller. Lack of timing and information
storage meant that calls could not be timed and there was only one charge rate per call
unless it was operator controlled. It also meant that billing data could only be collected
mechanically. A meter was required for each subscriber that stepped up from a pulse every
time a call was made. These meters were assembled on a rack a cameraman would go
around taking photos that would be used to generate billing.
In the early 70’s the Cross Bar Exchanges (X-bar) entered the scene. These exchanges
brought in many changes in the telephone system, the two main ones being routing and
timing, Because of these two features, the telecom operators were able to apply timing to
all calls, apply different charge rates to different routes selected according to the dialed
digits, and therefore subscriber trunk dialing was introduced. Other benefits that came
with X-bar switching were as follows:-
-required less room such that an area that was used to accommodate equipment for 20,000
exchange lines could now accommodate equipment for 80,000 exchange lines.
- reduced power consumption as the switching did not require motion switches as in the S
x S switches.
- Faster switching was realized.
-Increased revenue to telephone companies
See separate notes for X-bar switching
Electronic Switching system followed was developed named Stored Program Control
(SPC) Switching. Improvements obtained with these switches included the following:-
-More saving of space with electronic switching rather than mechanical switching.
-more saving on power consumption
-recorded billing data with possibility of download.
Digital Switching came as the need to integrate voice, data and video became more and
more important. A digital switch is a hardware device for handling digital signals. The main
function of these switches is to manage digital signals generated or passed through a telephone
network. The communication between the subscribers of a telephone company is established
with the help of digital switching. Digital switches can be of different types based on the number
of lines they handle and the included features. Digital switches are much faster in performance
compared to analog switches.
The purpose of a digital switch is to connect digital signals. These can be represented by
different numbers, but they can be in only one of two states: 0 or 1. Digital switches are not
designed to handle signals of various states having multiple numbers. Analog switches are
suitable for representing multiple-state signals.
Digital switches can be of different types. The main two types of switching are:
Time Switching – In time switching, any input 8-bit pulse-code modulation (PCM) is
allowed to forward to any output time slot. In this type, the input PCM word is written in
the switch data memory and then read out as per the requested call.
Space Switching – In space switching, an 8-bit PCM word holds its time slot. Here, as the
original time slot remains the same during and after switching, it does not cause any
delay.
Digital Switches came with increased advantages such as:-
Expanded call features
Expanded billing system such as pre-paid services, post-paid services, premium services
Classification of subscribers
Reduced space requirements
Reduced power requirements.
Increased revenue to telephone companies
Lower cost
See separate notes on Digital Switching systems.
System structures Wk2
In a telephone system, there will be an exchange to which subscribers are connected
through distribution network. The Distribution network starts at the main distribution
frame (MDF) located at the Telephone House. The cable pairs carrying subscribers lines
branch off to cabinets outside headed to where the subscribers are located. The cabinet
connects to a number of pillars which share the lines from the cabinet depending on the
potential connections in the area. Similarly the pillar connects to a number of distribution
points (DP) each with 10-30pairs to connect to the subscribers via drop wires.
The distribution network can either be underground or aerial depending on the size of
cables but usually up to the pillar these are underground.
From the end office exchange to the Tandem switch use trunks which can be copper,
PCM, line carrier system, radio or fiber. From tandem switch connection is possible to
subscribers at other exchanges.
A subscriber at an end office can connect to other subscribers at the end office, can also
connect to other subscribers via the tandem switch.
The tandem switch connects to the area switch which connects other area switches via
national switch which also connects to the international switch for calls to destinations
in other countries.
The end offices are connected in a star topology through tandem switch, area switches are
also connected in star topology through the national switch, the national switch.
End office is the lowest in the hierarchy with the international gateway being the highest in
the hierarchy.
Types of Switching, network topologies exclusive lines and multiparty lines Wk2
The following are three types of switching which more or less go with the application.
1 Circuit Switching: In circuit switching, end to end connection must be established before
communications can be made. This type of switching is used for telephone systems
2. Message switching is a store and forward system used for message transmission. The
system has buffers to allow messages to wait for the transmission channel to be available.
The message progresses from section to section waiting for channels to be available and
finally to the destination.
Message switching is used for short message system.
3) Packet switching. In packet switching, message is broken in small size packets
packaged with headers. These packets are then transmitted via different routes where
channels are available and are reassembled at the destination going by the header
information which carries the information on source, destination and order of the packet.
In packet switching. Little or no delay is experienced because packets take available routes
and are reassembled at the destination.
This mode of switching is well suited for digital communications data or digital telephony.
Network topologies
These are ways to connect elements of a network in a network. See notes attached on
Network Topologies
An exclusive line
This is a line connecting a subscriber to an exchange. The line is exclusive as it is provided
to serve a particular subscriber. It offers privacy and full availability to the concerned
subscriber.
A multiparty line:
This is a telephone exchange line provided to connect 10 subscribers. The subscribers have
numbers say 2Y1……………..2Y10 meaning that this is exchange line 2 connecting multiparty
subscribers Y1…………….Y10. When a arrives for say 2Y3, the operator will send 3 rings on
the line to announce that the call is for 2Y3, in which case only subscriber 2Y3 should
answer the call. In the event another party on the line lifts his/her handset, he /she can
listen to the conversation taking place and therefore it lacks privacy. The cost for providing
this line is low and sometimes it was provided because the exchange could not
accommodate more lines. This type of line was provided where subscribers were far away
from the exchange and cost of providing an exclusive line was prohibitive.
Exchanges –Analog Digital, Stored Programme Control (SPC) Exchanges, PABXs Wk3
Types of Exchanges were presented in the wk 1 notes which you can review. Most of the
switches from manual switchboards to SPC exchanges are analog. The digital exchanges are
presented separately. PABX stands for Private Automatic Branch Exchange. As the name
suggests, this is a private switch installed at the customer premises. A customer choses to
install PABX at own premises so as to provide internal communications for the
organization at no costs from the telephone service provider. The customer bears the cost
of providing installing and maintenance of the PABX. It is connected to the telephone
Exchange via special PABX lines in a group arranged to provide progressive selection of
lines not engaged, i.e. if a customer has 10 lines in a PABX group, a PABX user from the
organization will access line 1 if all the lines are free. The next user will access line2 if the
first line is busy and the others are free and so on for the outgoing lines. For incoming
lines, a caller will automatically fall on line1 if all lines are free. The next caller will go to
line 2 etc.
In providing a PABX, it is necessary to study the extension requirements assess the traffic
to be handled, the needed PABX lines to carry the traffic, establish the PABX specifications
and then proceed to procure PABX.
Signaling Wk 4
Signaling is used in telecommunications system for a number of purposes like to connect
calls, to disconnect calls, for charging, for setting up conference calls, transfer of calls and
many others. Signaling was initially provide in band i.e. within voice frequency 300Hz to
3.4 kHz. Using two frequencies as then known as 2VF, MF (Multi Frequency) and DC
signaling as E&M
Because of the problem of interference of signaling with speech out band signaling was
developed where signaling is away from speech band
. Continued refinement of out band signaling has continued and todays standard is SS No 7
which is presented in a separate Notes attached.
Call types Wk5
Telephone Call s from an exchange can be one of the following:-
Intra-office Call if the caller and the called are in the same exchange, e.g. a call within
Milimani Exchange Nairobi.
Local Call if the caller and the called are in the same Exchange area e.g. a call within Nairobi
Trunk Call if the caller and the called subscriber are in different exchange areas e.g. call
between Nairobi and Nakuru
An International Call is one made from one Country to another e.g. a call from Nairobi
Kenya to London in UK.
Terminal Equipment Wk 6
These are the following:
1) Telephone equipment for voice communication. These were discussed in week 1
2) Facsimile machines for sending and receiving of documents usually signed to
facilitate use. They are also used to send receive contract documents invoices as
they are seen to authentic.
3) Modems are used facilitate transmission of data over telephone lines
The above 1-3are used with telephone exchanges,
4) Tele printer are used for sending and reception of telegrams.
These are connected directly on telephone circuits reserved for telegraph services.
5) Telex machines are used for sending and receiving of Telex messages used for
business transactions. There were two telex exchanges one in Nairobi and the other
one in Mombasa mainly to support banking and cargo handling operations.
6) Computers are connected to telecommunications links for data processing
operations.
Digital Communications networks. Wk8
The following separate notes are attached for these.
Basic Elements of Digital Communication
Communications protocol
Communication Architecture
