Economic analysis of integrated voice and data networks: A case study

This paper describes the results of a study to evaluate alternative switching strategies for future integrated voice and data networks. Three fundamental problems are addressed: 1) the economics of integrating voice and data applicatiom in a common communications system; 2) the comparison of alternative switching technologies for integrated voice and data networks; 3) the cost-effectiveness of alternative voice digitization rates and strategies. Three broad switching technologies and variations thereof are investigated and compared. The switching technologies are: circuit switching, packet switching, and hybrid (circuit-packet) switching. Each switching technology can accommodate either voice or data applications separately or combined voice and data requirements in an integrated fashion. Results of studies regarding communications systems option are provided and the sensitivity of the results are tested with respect to traffic variations, cost trends of switching and transmission, and network performance variables. The significant variables which affect the results are identified and quantified. The intent of this study is to identify and quantify network technologies which demonstrate long-term low operating costs, This is a necessary effort to provide the basis for determining the most cost-effective evolutionary path for future communication systems. It is recognized that transition problems and associated costs may be other important factors determining the ultimate evolutionary path. However, determining these costs was not an objective of this study. Neverthless, this study provides a framework and a target technology for detailed evolution, planning, and cost analysis.     

Issues in Terrestrial/Satellite Network Synchronization

This paper examines the key issues involved in choosing synchronization techniques applicable to both terrestrial and satellite switching networks. The terrestrial networks considered involve circuit switching, message switching, packet switching, and other integrated voice/data nodal configurations. The satellite networks considered involve time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems and their associated synchronization problems. Peculiar problems associated with satelliteswitched TDMA (SS/TDMA) network synchronization are also addressed. Finally, the issues involved in synchronizing integrated satellite/terrestrial networks are addressed. Emphasis will be placed on assessing the state of the art of current terrestial/satellite synchronization technology and projecting future trends.     

Synchronization Techniques for Various Switching Network Topologies

This paper examines the network timing and synchronization requirements for various network topologies. Both centralized and decentralized topologies are considered. Although the prime emphasis is on circuit switching networks, other networks involving message switches, packet switches, and integrated voice/data nodal configurations are also considered.     

Analysis of Group 4 Facsimile Throughput

The CCITT (Consultive Committee for International Telephone and Telegraph) is developing recommendations for a new generation of facsimile equipment which is designed as Group 4. This class of equipment will transmit an ISO A4-sized page overcommunications networks having error control. Most commercial packet switched and circuit data networks have been designed primarily for the communications of short bursty messages (typically 1000-2000 bits/message between computers and data terminals. The length of a G4 message is forecast to be very long-typically 500 000 bits. There is serious concern that data networks may not handle facsimile traffic very efficiently. This paper projects the near term characteristics of data networks and Group 4 facsimile systems, and estimates the efficiency with which Group 4 messages will be transmitted over three types of data networkspacket switching (PSDN), circuit switched (CSDN), and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Throughput has been measured by the amount of time required to send a single facsimile page of 500 000 coded bits. In all cases the overhead, as a percentage of the basic facsimile transmission time, is in the range of 50-60 percent. For each network there is a different factor is the halts are forced is transmission as a result of the network window. For the CSDN, the process if converting from voice to data mode is the dominating factor. For the PSTN, packet retransmission due to transmission errors is the dominating factor. The paper includes the assumptions and some of the analytical details of the throughput analysis. Conclusions are drawn regarding the relative transmission efficints through the three types of networks.     

A Distributed Experimental Communications System

The packet experimental communications system (packet XCS) is a new experimental voice and data switch. It uses a local-area network (LAN) for digital voice transmission, with local intelligence for switching. The packet XCS also has highly distributed control. The individual sites cooperate to provide user services as well as internal data management. We have learned that several local networks, including CSMA/CD networks, can be made to work well for voice transmission and that highly distributed control is practical in such a system. A system has been constructed which is used as a testbed for distributed voice and data communications experiments. This system is purely for experimentation and does not indicate a direction for future Bell System product offerings.     

The evolution of packet switching

Over the past decade data communications has been revolutionized by a radically new technology called packet switching. In 1968 virtually all interactive data communication networks were circuit switched, the same as the telephone network. Circuit switching networks preallocate transmission bandwidth for an entire call or session. However, since interactive data traffic occurs in short bursts 90 percent or more of this bandwidth is wasted. Thus, as digital electronics became inexpensive enough, it became dramatically more cost-effective to completely redesign communications networks, introducing the concept of packet switching where the transmission bandwidth is dynamically allocated, permitting many users to share the same transmission line previously required for one user. Packet switching has been so successful, not only in improving the economics of data communications but in enhancing reliability and functional flexibility as well, that in 1978 virtually all new data networks being built throughout the world are based on packet switching. An open question at this time is how long will it take for voice communications to be revolutionized as well by packet switching technology. In order to better understand both the past and future evolution of this fast moving technology, this paper examines in detail the history and trends of packet switching.     

Burst switching-an update

Burst switching research in dispersed control and integrated switching is described. Burst transport is integrated in that voice and data are switched through the same switching fabric and transmission media. Burst switching is compared to and distinguished from fast packet, fast circuit, and ATM (asynchronous transfer mode) switching. Misunderstandings about burst transport that have appeared in the literature are corrected, to wit: burst does not immediately clip in case of channel contention; burst switches voice and data in the same way; and a burst switch interfaces naturally to other types of switches. Round-trip delay performance is calculated to be less than 5 ms. The current status of the burst project is described     

SDH以太共享环在城域网的应用

随着因特网和数据业务的爆炸性增长，城域网的主要业务正在从话音向数据转移。然而过去的城域传送网是为话音业务设计的，所以采用的是TDMM网络(SDH、SONET)。本首先介绍了基于SDH网络传送数据业务的几种新技术，如：POS、GFP、LCAS、RPR、共享以太环等，以及可以实现业务隔离、保证安全的VLAN、VLAN嵌套技术，然后对各种城域网数据传输技术进行了比较，最后分新了薪一代的MSTP设各府该具有的几个特点。     

光突发数据包整合技术的研究

光突发交换是适合在当前技术条件下的新交换技术，它比电路交换灵活，带宽利用率高，又比光分组交换易于实现，将成为下一代光IP骨干网的核心技术。介绍了控制分组结构。重点研究了光突发交换的关键技术—突发数据包整合技术的各种方法，指出突发数据包整合技术在很大程度上影响着光突发交换网的性能。     

Unified approaches to integrated-service networks–burst and fast packet switching

The increasing demand for communication services, coupled with recent technological advances in communication media and switching techniques, has resulted in a proliferation of new and expanded services. Currently, networks are needed which can transmit voice, data and video services in an application-independent fashion. Unified approaches employ a single switching technique across the entire network bandwidth, thus allowing services to be switched in an application-independent manner. This paper presents a taxonomy of integrated-service networks, including a look at NISDN, while focusing on unified approaches to integrated-service networks. The two most promising unified approaches are burst and fast packet switching. Burst switching is a circuit switching-based approach which allocates channel bandwidth to a connection only during the transmission of ‘bursts’ of information. Fast packet switching is a packet switching-based approach which can be characterized by very high transmission rates on network links and simple, hard-wired protocols which match the rapid channel speed of the network. Both approaches are being proposed as possible implementations for integrated-service networks. We survey these two approaches, and also examine the key performance issues found in fast packet switching. We then present the results of a simulation study of a fast packet switching network.     

The Evolution of Data Switching for PBX's

This paper compares and contrasts the different traffic requirements of both voice and data communications. The role of evolving PBX technology in solving data communication needs is outlined, beginning with the analog PBX's of the 1970's and the digital-switching technology of the 1980's. The evolution of packet switching, and its superiority over traditional circuit switching for solving data communications needs, is analyzed. The paper concludes by describing a PBX implementation that takes advantage of circuit- and packet-switching technologies and thus offers a truly integrated multipurpose communications switch.     

Software Protocol for Handling ISDN in the Packet-Switched Network

The Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) provides basic architecture for existing, as well as future residential plus business communications. ISDN overlayed with CCS#7 of a digital PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) can be the ultimate, ubiquitous network for circuit switch (voice, data), packet switch (voice, data), and private line (voice, data) applications. Assuming that the present ISDN has to interwork in the present physically separate overlayed networks (voice and data), significant problems are expected to emerge for designing hardware and linking softwares for handling packet traffic. In this paper, the software-related problems, when ISDN packet distribution nodes have to handle an ISDN interface, will be outlined with an ISDN software protocol solution. An approximation of the delay involved in the telephone switching system which is part of ISDN processing as well as the delay for the interface gateways, the HOST computer nodes, and the LAN and WAN computer nodes will be identified and formulated to reflect the total performance measure defined. Major emphasis is given to flow and congestion control performance measures in the ISDN Gateways, which are analyzed and simulated with the assistance of the basic delay table transfer software model developed for the IMPS and gateways in the ARPANET, MILNET, and MINET. The performance evaluation of this basic ISDN interfacing software, which only involved one ISDN level, i.e., the HOST or gateway and its related subnetworks, is simulated on sections of these networks to illustrate its congestion control effectiveness. There are six mathematical software techniques to account for end-to-end delay, which form the basis for the solution to these ISDN software-hardware problems in the Interface Gateways connecting the electronic switch to the computer network components.     

Commercial, legal, and international aspects of packet communications

Packet switching technology emerged rapidly in the 1970's as another viable mode of communications switching, along with circuit and message switching. Since packet switching offers economical and versatile data communication capabilities in a multiuser environment, it is particularly well suited for furnishing public data communication network services. Public packet networks are now established or being developed in most industrialized countries, and the introduction of these networks has raised policy issues relating to the structure and regulation of the national networks, and the interconnection of national networks into an international packet switching system. This paper reviews these issues and concludes that public packet switching network services will continue to be regulated in all cases; that competitive packet networks will coexist in the U.S. and in Canada, but that only one national packet network will exist in each of most other countries; that packet networks will aggravate the problem of distinguishing nonregulated data processing services from regulated data communication services; that international interconnection of public packet networks based upon CCITT standanh will occur rapidly over the next several years; and that a unified international packet switching system will eventually emerge similar to today's international telephone and telex systems.     

Synchronous Composite Packet Switching-A Switching Architecture for Broadband ISDN

A new switching architecture for broadband ISDN, "Synchronous Composite Packet Switching (SCPS)," is proposed and evaluated. It efficiently integrates circuit and packet switching functions on a single switching system and accommodates very high speed-up to several tens of Mbit/s-communication services, such as very high speed bursts of data, still picture, and motion video, as well as 64 kbit/s or less voice and data services. The SCPS system comprises plural switch modules and plural Very high speed synchronous loops. In the SCPS system, messages on plural circuit switched channels are assembled into quasi-packets, called "composite packets," and switched synchronously between switch modules, maintaining complete time transparency and short absolute delay time. A system parameter design to obtain high system efficiency and appropriate system modularity is explained, and an example for a very large capacity transit switch of 4 Gbit/s throughput is presented. System implementation problems to realize the SCPS principle, such as efficient implementation of the composite packet assembling and loop transmission functions, are investigated and an experimental system constructed for circuit switching part is presented. The most remarkable characteristic of the SCPS is that it efficiently integrates64 times nkbit/s circuit switching with packet switching. Moreover, the SCPS system retains compatibility with existing networks and the possibiliy of evolution toward a future broadband ISDN. On the basis of the above investigations and experimental system construction, the authors conclude that the SCPS is one of the most practical switching architectures for the coming broadband ISDN era.     

光突发交换中的突发包组装技术研究

光突发交换是近几年出现的一种很有前途的光交换技术，比电路交换灵活，带宽利用率高，又比光分组交换易于实现，突发包的组装是光突发交换的关键技术，在很大程度上影响到光突发交换网络的性能。文中介绍了光突发包的格式，描述了交换网络中突发包组装所需的层次结构和功能结构，并给出了一种典型的生成算法。最后，对选择突发包组装时间应考虑的各种因素进行了系统的分析。     

Delay Related Issues in Integrated Voice and Data Networks

This paper focuses on network delays as they apply to voice traffic. First the nature of the delay problem is discussed and this is followed by a review of enhanced circuit, packet, and hybrid switching techniques: these include fast circuit switching (FCS), virtual circuit switching (VCS), buffered speech interpolation (SI), packetized virtual circuit (PVC), cut-through switching (CTS), composite packets, and various frame management strategies for hybrid switching. In particular, the concept of introducing delay to resolve contention in SI is emphasized, and when applied to both voice talkspurts and data messages, forms a basis for a relatively new approach to network design called transparent message switching (TMS). This approach and its potential performance advantages are reviewed in terms of packet structure, multiplexing scheme, network topology, and network protocols. The paper then deals more specifically with the impact of variable delays on voice traffic. In this regard the importance of generating and preserving appropriate length speech talkspurts in order to mitigate the effects of variable network delay is emphasized. The results indicate that a desirable length of talkspurt "hangover" of about 200 ms will accomplish this without unduly affecting speech activity, and that, under these circumstances, the perceptable threshold of variable talkspurt delay can be as high as about 200 ms average. As such, the results provide a useful guideline for integrated services system designers. Finally, suggestions are made for further studies on performance analysis and subjective evaluation of advanced integrated services systems.     

Admission policies for integrated voice and data traffic in CDMApacket radio networks

The authors derive optimal admission policies for integrated voice and data traffic in packet radio networks employing code division multiple access (CDMA) with direct-sequence spread spectrum (DS/SS) signaling. The network performance is measured in terms of the average blocking probability of voice calls and the average delay and packet loss probability of data messages. The admission scheme determines the number of newly arrived voice users that are accepted in the network so that the long-term blocking probability of voice calls is minimized. In addition, new data arrivals are rejected if the mean delay or the packet loss probability of data exceeds a desirable prespecified level. A semi-Markov decision process (SMDP) is used to model the system operation. Then, a value iteration algorithm is used to derive the optimal admission control. Two models for the other-user interference of the CDMA system are considered: one based on thresholds and another based on the graceful degradation of the CDMA system performance, and their performance is compared. These admission policies find application in emerging commercial CDMA packet radio networks including cellular networks, personal communication networks, and networks of LEO satellites for global communications     

Operation, administration, and maintenance in MPLS networks

The boundaries between packet and circuit networks have long disappeared, with many traditional circuit-switched applications such as voice and video now being carried over packet-switched IP/MPLS or Ethernet networks. However, this transition has happened so fast that many OAM functions supported by circuit-switched networks such as SONET/SDH are still unmatched in packet networks. In order to match the quality sustained by circuit-switched networks, OAM functions must also be developed for such packet networks. A number of recent efforts have started to address OAM functions for IP/MPLS and Ethernet packet technologies. Service providers and carriers alike are the driving force behind the work, as there is general recognition that to generate sustained revenues, services must be efficiently managed. In this article we discuss issues in providing OAM features and capabilities for MPLS-based packet networks.     

光突发交换网中的智能组包研究

光突发交换(OBS)相对传统的电路交换方式具有更高的传输效率和更短的网络时延,而相对于未来网络的发展趋势光分组交换,光突发交换具备更现实的可行性.在OBS中,突发汇聚是一个很关键的技术,它对OBS网络的性能有着重要的影响,在本文中,我们对突发汇聚机制进行了较深入的研究,并提出了一种新的突发汇聚算法,它对抑制网络流量的自相似性,提高突发传输效率和避免在不同节点由于突发同步所引起的带宽资源竞争都有较好的结果.     

Elastic basket switching

This paper proposes a new integrated switching system, ‘elastic basket switching’, for broadband and multimedia communications, including voice and high-speed data. In elastic basket switching (EBS), it is possible flexibly and efficiently to handle multimedia information by adaptively assigning communication resources according to communication requests and bandwidth of switched information. For continuous information, such as voice, EBS functions just as a circuit switching system, and for burst data it achieves high-efficiency bandwidth usage equivalent to a packet switching system by demand-assign type time-slot assignment. The detail of EBS and its application to a departmental system-orientated PBX are described. The traffic handling capability and details of the hardware structure are presented. The experimental system, including use of LSIs in the main parts of EBS is also described.