Switching and Intelligent Networks

Chapter 2

Electromechanical Switching Systems

Course Instructor: Elias M.

 Chapter Outline
 Introduction

 Strowger Switching System

 Crossbar Switching Systems

 Multistage Crossbar Switching Systems

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 Introduction
 All practical switching system should satisfy the following
requirements for the economic use of the equipment's of the
system and to provide efficient service to the subscribers.

 Depends on the place (Rural or town, big town, city or big

cities),the local exchange located, the service provided to
the subscriber may vary.

1. High availability: The telephone system must be very reliable

i.e. System reliability can be expressed mathematically as the
ratio of uptime to sum of the uptime and down time.

 The uptime is the total time that the system is operating

satisfactorily and the down time is the total time that is not.

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 Cont’d
 In telephone switching networks, the availability or full accessibility is
possible if all of the lines are equally accessible to all incoming calls.

 The full accessibility is also defined as the capacity or number of

outlets of a switch to access a given route.

 The availability is defined as

𝑈𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑀𝑇𝐵𝐹
𝐴= =
𝑈𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 + 𝑑𝑜𝑤𝑛 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑀𝑇𝐵𝐹 + 𝑀𝑇𝐵𝑅

where, MTBF = Mean time between failure

MTTR = Mean time to repair.

 The unavailability of the system is given by

𝑀𝑇𝐵𝑅
𝑈 = 1– 𝐴=
𝑀𝑇𝐵𝑅 + 𝑀𝑇𝐵𝐹
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 Cont’d
2. High speed: The switching speed should be high enough to
make use of the switching system efficiently.

 The speed of switching depends on how quickly the control

signals are transmitted.

 Thus the switching system must have the facility of quick

access of the switching equipment and networks.

3. Low down time: The down time is the total time the switching
system is not operating satisfactorily i.e. the down time is low
enough to have high availability.
 The unavailability of switching system may be due to failure of
equipment’s, troubles in transmission media, human errors in
switching etc.

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 Cont’d
4. Good facilities: A switching system must have various facilities
to serve the subscriber I.e. it should have good servicing facilities
in case of repair of equipment's, skilled technicians, standby
systems, etc.

5. High security: To ensure satisfied or correct operation (i.e.

providing path and supervising the entire calls to pass necessary
control signals) provision should be provided in the switching
system.
 Duplicated common control circuits, registers, processors and
standby systems are used provide high security.

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 Cont’d
 There are three classes of switching system based on
the division of information in space, time and
frequency.
 The space division provides fixed path for the entire duration of a call.
Simplicity, unlimited bandwidth, cross talk limitations are the advantages of
space division switches. But these space switches are slow to operate, bulky,
and involves large amount of wiring.

 In time division switching all inlets and outlet one connected to a common
switch mechanism. The switch is connected to the required inlet and outlet for
short durations.

 In frequency division switching, the incoming signal is modulated onto a

difficult carrier frequency. Switching is achieved if each outlet is provided with
a demodulator which can have its carrier frequency changed.

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 Cont’d
 The basic elements required in a switching centre are
1) Switches

2) a means of receiving signal from terminals and other switching

centres and

3) a control system which is required to

a. perform logical operations

b. store information and

c. provide an interface between the control and the switching and

information elements.

 The switching elements used in space division and time division

switching are (a) conventional relays (b) read relays (c) uniselectors
(d) two motion selector (e) arbiters (f) functors etc.

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 Chapter Outline
 Introduction

 Strowger Switching System

 Crossbar Switching Systems

Multistage Crossbar Switching Systems

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 Strowger Switching System
 The Strowger switch is the first commercially
successful electromechanical stepping switch telephone
exchange system.

 It was developed by the Strowger Automatic

Telephone Exchange Company founded in 1891 by
Almon Brown Strowger.

 Because of its operational characteristics it is also

known as a step-by-step (SXS) switch.

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 Cont’d
 Among those electromechanical automatic switches,
Strowger’s step by step switching system was the most
popular and widely used and even now in some part
of the world, it is in use.

 The reasons for survival of this system even in some

part of the world are its
 High system availability

 Comprehensibility

 Cheapness and simplicity

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 Cont’d
 There are two basic elements which performs most of
the functions of the strowger switching system.

 These two basic elements are: and

.

I. Uniselectors
 A uniselector is a one which has a single rotary switch
with a bank of contacts.

 Depending upon the number of switching contacts,

uniselectors are identified as 10 outlet or 24 outlet
uniselectors.
Chapter 2: Electromechanical Switching Systems Page: /61
 Cont’d
 A single 10 outlet or 24 outlet uniselector can be
used as a switching element for 10 or 24 subscribers.

 Several uniselectors can be graded together so that

multiple incoming circuits can be connected to
multiple outgoing circuits.

 The figure given below shows the simple arrangement

of uniselectors.

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.1: (a) 10 contact uniselector, (b) graded uniselectors

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.2: (a) practical Uni-selector Strowger switching system,

(b) The drive mechanism of the Uni-selector Strowger
switching system
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 Cont’d
 The contact arm or wiper moves across a fixed set of
switch contacts.

 In the case single uniselector, each contact is

connected to an outgoing channel, so a caller can
choose to connect to any of 10 different subscribers
by dialing any digit from 1 to 10.

 As this selector moves in just one plane, thus sort of

automated selector is known as uniselector.

 The wiper movement in the uniselector is operated by

a drive mechanism of a rotary switch.
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 Cont’d
 This mechanism contains an armature, electromagnet, Pawl,
and Ratched wheel.

 The wiper is attached to the ratchet wheel.

 When the line relay detects a calling signal, the magnet is

energized and operates the ratchet wheel, pawl and its
associated wiper.

 When the electromagnet is de-energized the armature is

released and returns to its rest position.

 Thus, if the electromagnet is energized and de-energized,

(for example 3 times by applying 3 pulses), the wiper moves
by three contacts.

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 Cont’d
II. Two motion selectors
 A two motion selector is a selector in which a set of
wipers is moved in two different planes by means of
separate mechanisms.
 By mounting several arcs of outlets on top of each
other, the number of outlets can be increased
significantly, but the wipers are then required to
move both horizontally to select a bank and then
vertically to move around that bank to the required
outlet.
 Such a selector is known as a two motion selector.
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 Cont’d
 The figure given below shows a typical two motion
selector arrangement.

Figure 2.3: Two motion selector.

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 Cont’d
 Typically, the outlets are arranged in banks of ten
rows or ten contacts each.

 A given outlet may be reached by between one and

ten vertical steps followed and by one to ten
horizontal steps.

 Thus, the wiper in a two motion selector has access to

100 switching contacts.

 The lowest vertical position and first horizontal

position in each vertical level are home positions.

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 Cont’d
 The basic principle of strowger system is the direct
application of the functional subdivision with extensive
use of third wire control.

 There is also an element of shared switch network but

without any common control.

 In general, the strowger switching system consists of

subscriber’s line circuit, line finder & alloter circuit,
Group selector and final selector.

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 Cont’d
 The figure given below shows the block diagram of
strowger switching which explains the process by
which the switching system connects a calling
subscriber and called subscriber.

Figure 2.4: Block diagram of strowger switching system

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.5: Routing of a

local call in strowger
switching system.

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 Cont’d
 Subscriber line circuit (SLC):
 Every subscriber is connected to local exchange by one
pair of wires.

 This single pair carries the voice in both directions and

the ring current to ring the bell when a call is received.

 At the exchange, every subscriber line terminates into

its own SLC.

 This consists of a pair of relays dedicated to that

subscriber.

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 Cont’d
 If there are 1000 subscriber on that exchange, then there
are 1000 SLCs.

 Remaining switching circuits are shared by all the

subscribers.

 When the subscriber lifts his handset, current starts to flow

on the line.

 This is detected by the SLC.

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 Cont’d
 Line Finder & Alloter:
 As there are many subscribers, but only a few selectors,
there has to be a method for finding a free selector and
to connect the calling subscriber to that free selector.

 To find a free selector, alloter switch is used for

connecting calling subscriber and selector line, selector
hunter based access or line finder based access can be
used.

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 Cont’d
 In selector hunter based access, when a subscriber lifts his
handset, the interrupter mechanism in his selector hunter
gets activated and the wiper steps to find free first
selector.

 Once the free first selector is sensed, it is marked busy and

the interrupter mechanism of selector hunter is disabled.

 Now the first selector sends the dial tone to the subscriber
and then ready to receive dialed pulses from the calling
subscriber.

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 Cont’d
 Thereafter, the first selector provides only electrical paths
between calling subscriber and group selector.

 In line finder based access approach, the seize is identified

by interrupt mechanism.

 Through the alloter switch, free line finder is identified. It

gets activated and its wiper steps forward to reach the
subscriber contact.

 Now the corresponding first selector sends the accept

signal as dial tone.

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 Cont’d
 Group Selector:
 Depends on the subscriber number, the group selector
may comprise one or two selectors, generally referred as
first and second selectors.

 For 3 digit number, only one selector is required.

 For a 4 digit number, two selectors are required.

 Let the called subscriber number is 5345.

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 Cont’d
 When the subscriber dial the first number 5, the voltage
level corresponding to ‘5’ is represented by the sequence of
5 negative pulses as shown in figure below.

Figure 2.6: Waveform generated by dialing 5345

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 Cont’d
 Final selector:
 The final selector takes care of the last two digits. As the last
two digit being 4 and 5.

 The dialing of 4 advances the switch to row 4 and then the

dialing of 5, rotates the switch to the 5th column.

 If the called subscriber line is free, then, the path setup is

completed.

 Otherwise a busy signal is returned to the caller.

 The final selector acts as an expander, to connect the heavily

loaded trunks to the much larger number of lightly loaded
customer lines.
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 Cont’d
 As the path setup between calling and called subscriber is
in response to the digits dialled, the system is called the
step by step system.

 It is also referred as a direct controlled switching system

because each switching stage will be under direct control of
the originating telephone’s dial.

 As the strowger system provides dedicated path for the

subscribers during conversation, it may be referred to as
space division technology.

 In practice, with 4-digit numbering scheme, this switching

system provides access to fewer than 10000 subscribers.
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 Cont’d
 Advantages:
 Inexpensive for small system

 Highly reliable due to the distributed nature of

equipment

 Disadvantages:
 As this switching involves heavy mechanical
displacements, regular maintenance by the skilled
technicians are necessary.

 It is not feasible to select an alternate route for

interoffice calls

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 Cont’d
 Step by step switching is limited to dial pulses. For
touchtone telephones, special devices has to be
introduced between line finder and first selector to
convert the tones into dial pulses.

 If calling rate is high, heavy operation is performed by

the system and the life time of the system is less.

 Congestion could arise when the switching system is

heavily loaded.

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 Cont’d
 The capacity of switching system reduces if codes of
different numbers are allotted to various subscribers,
such as fire service, police ambulance, directory
enquiry, operator assistance etc.

 In certain cases, the exchange capacity may be

reduced from 10,000 to even 6,000 customer lines.

 The strowger system can accept only 7 to 9 pulses in

1 second. Hence if we dial fast, the system can not
give correct performance.

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 Chapter Outline
 Introduction

 Strowger Switching System

 Crossbar Switching Systems

Multistage Crossbar Switching Systems

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 Crossbar Switching Systems
 A crossbar switch is a collection of switches arranged
in a matrix configuration.

 A crossbar switch has multiple input and output lines

that form a crossed pattern of interconnecting lines
between which a connection may be established by
closing a switch located at each intersection, the
elements of the matrix.

 If the crossbar switch has M inputs and N outputs,

then a crossbar has a matrix with M×N crosspoints
or places where the connections cross.
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 Cont’d
 A crossbar switch basically consists line link frames
trunk, link frames and common control equipments.
 With crossbar switches and common control
equipments, the crossbar exchange achieves full access
and nonblocking capabilities.

 Active elements called crosspoints are placed between

input and output lines.

 In common control switching systems, the switching

and the control operations are separated.

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 Cont’d
 This permits a particular group of common control
circuits to route connections through the switching
network for many calls at the same time on a shared
basis.

 The unique features of the crossbar switches are:-

i. Common control allows the customer and the switch to
share the common equipments used to process the call.

ii. Wire logic computer allows specific routine functions of

call processing to be hand-wired into the switch.

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 Cont’d
i. Flexible concentration ratios allows the system designer to
select the appropriate ratio for a specific switch based on
customer mix in a specific location.

ii. Crossbar switches are easier to maintain because the switch

have significantly fewer moving parts than strowger
switching system.

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 Cont’d
 Basic principle:
 The fundamental concept of crossbar switching is
that it uses common control networks.
 The common control networks enables the exchange
to perform event monitoring, call processing,
charging, operation and maintenance.
 The common control also facilitates uniform
numbering of subscribers in a multi-exchange area
like big cities and routing of calls from one exchange
to another via some intermediate exchanges.

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 Cont’d
 The common control method of switching overcomes
the disadvantages of step-by-step switching.

 The common control makes no call processing until it

receives entire number.

 It receives all the number, stores, and then establishes

connection.

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 Cont’d
 Crossbar switching matrix:

 The basic crossbar matrix requires at least M×N sets

of contacts and M+N or less activators to select one
of the contacts.

 The figure given below illustrates the 3×4 crossbar

switching.

 It contains an array of horizontal and vertical wires

(shown as a solid line).

 Both wires are connected to initially separated

contact points of switches.
Chapter 2: Electromechanical Switching Systems Page: /61
 Cont’d

Figure 2.7: 3 × 4 crossbar switch.

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 Cont’d
 Horizontal and vertical bars (shown as dotted lines) are
mechanically connected to these contact points and attached
to the electromagnets.

 When both horizontal and vertical bars connected to the

electromagnet are activated, the contact of the intersection
of the two bars will close together.

 Thus the contact is made and continues to hold. When the

electromagnets are de-energized both horizontal bar and
vertical bars are released from the contact.

 In order to prevent the catching of different crosspoint in the

same circuit, a procedure is followed to establish a connection.

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 Cont’d
 Accordingly, horizontal bar is energized first and then vertical
bar is energized to make contact or in reverse.

 But while removing contact horizontal bar is de-energized

first and then the vertical bar is de-energized.

 The crossbar switch is known as a non-blocking crossbar

configuration.

 It requires 𝑁 2 switching elements for N subscribers.

 Thus for 100 subscribers, 10000 crosspoint switches are

required.

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 Cont’d
 Hence, crossbar is economic only for small private
exchanges requiring small switches.
 For connecting and releasing the subscriber, the select
magnet and bridge magnet should be energised and
de-energised respectively.

 External switch must decide which magnet to operate

this is called marker.

 A marker can control many switches and serve many

registers.
 Thus, even a large exchange needs few markers.

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 Cont’d
 In Ericsson ARF system, groups of 1000 subscribers
are served by a line switch network controlled by the
two markers.

 Diagonal crosspoint matrix:

 A diagonal matrix for 5 subscriber is shown in figure

given below.

 The number of crosspoints are reduced to

N(N–1)/2, where N is the number of subscribers.

 It is also called triangular matrix or two way

matrix.
Chapter 2: Electromechanical Switching Systems Page: /61
 Cont’d

Figure 2.8: Diagonal crosspoint matrix.

 The diagonal crosspoint matrix is fully connected. When subscriber c
initiates a call, his horizontal bar is energised first and then the
appropriate bar.
 The diagonal crosspoint matrix is nonblocking configuration.
 The difficulty is that the failure of a single switch will make some
subscribers inaccessible.

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 Cont’d
 The Crossbar switch configurations are Non-blocking
configurations, which have N 2 switching elements for
Nsubscribers and can makeN/2simultaneous conversations.

 The usage of Crosspoint depends upon the calling

subscriber.

 However, this Non-blocking scheme has few disadvantages

such as:-
 Large number of switching elements are required,

 This is difficult to implement in practice,

 This is neither a cost-effective process.

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 Cont’d
 In order to overcome these disadvantages, the blocking Crossbar
switching was introduced.

 The main aim of blocking Crossbar switches is to reduce the number of

Crosspoint switches.

 There are single stage and multi-stage switches.

 The number of Crosspoint switches can be reduced with the help of two
different methodologies.

 In the first method, two subscribers share one vertical bar with this,
the number of bars will be reduced but the number of Crosspoint
switches remain the same.

 The second method is where all the subscribers share a number of

vertical bars with this, the number of bars and Crosspoint switches are
reduced.
Chapter 2: Electromechanical Switching Systems Page: /61
 Cont’d
 Method 1:-
 This method contains 2NK switches, where N is the number of subscribers
and K is the number of simultaneous connections.

 Four bars operate to establish a connection. If a connection has to be

established between A and B, then the horizontal bar A is energized first
and then one of the free vertical bars say P is energized.

 Now, the Crosspoint AP is latched. If the horizontal bar B is energized now,

BP will not be latched, as the P vertical is energized before B was energized.

 To connect A and B, we need another vertical Crossbar which should

electrically correspond to the vertical bar P, which is P’ as shown in the
following figure.

 When this P’ is energized after B, the Crosspoint BP’ is latched and a

connection between A and B is established.

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.9: Method 1

crosspoint matrix.
 Hence, the steps associated with the establishment of connection
follows a sequence :-
 Energize horizontal bar A
 Energize free vertical bar P
 De-energize horizontal bar A
 Energize horizontal bar B
 Energize free vertical bar P’ (associated with P)
 De-energize horizontal bar B
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 Cont’d
 Method 2:-
 This method contains NK switches, where N is the number of
subscribers and K is the number of simultaneous connections.

 Here, three bars operate to establish a connection. If a

connection has to be established between A and B, then the
horizontal bars A and B are energized first and then one of the
free vertical bars say P is energized.

 Now, the connection is established using one vertical bar P only

instead of two bars. The horizontal bars A and B are de-
energized now.

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.10: Method 2

crosspoint matrix.
 Hence, the establishment of connection follows a sequence:-
 Energize horizontal bars A and B
 Energize free vertical bar P
 De-energize horizontal bars A and B

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 Chapter Outline
 Introduction

 Strowger Switching System

 Crossbar Switching Systems

 Multistage Crossbar Switching Systems

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 Multistage Crossbar Switching Systems
 Many of the limitations of the single stage matrix can
be remedied by using a multistage structure.

 In order to produce longer switches a two stage link

system of primary and secondary switches is used.

 The figure given below shows a two stage link network

called line frame.

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 Cont’d

Figure 2.11: Two stage link network

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 Cont’d
 The above figure shows twenty switches of size
10×10 used to connect 100 incoming trunks to 100
outgoing trunks.

 The links between primary and secondary are

arranged systematically.

 The link 29 connects the outlet of 9 of primary

switch 2 and inlet of 2 of secondary switch 9.

 The marker sets up a connection between incoming

and outgoing trunk only when both are found to be
free this is called conditional selection.
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 Assignment #1 [15%]
1. Explain operation mechanism of Pulse Dialing, Rotary Dial
Telephone, and Multi Frequency Dialing.

2. Explain operation & frequency band of subscriber related signaling

functions such as Dial Tone, Ring Tone, Busy Tone, Number
Unobtainable Tone, & Routing Tone or Call-in-Progress Tone.

3. Explain the switching hierarchy and routing of the telephone lines.

4. Discuss the Numbering Plans & Charging plan for telephone

networks.

 N.B.#1 Make a group of max 5 of students and attempt of

coping the answer is forbidden.

 N.B.#2 Submission date: April 25,2023

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 End of the chapter

Question?

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