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Public Switched Telephone Network

Architecture and context

The PSTN was the earliest example of traffic engineering to deliver quality of service (QoS) guarantees.[citation needed] A.K. Erlang (18781929) established the mathematical foundations of methods required to determine the capacity requirements and configuration of equipment and the number of personnel required to deliver a specific level of service.

In the 1970s the telecommunications industry began implementing packet switched network services using the X.25 protocol transported over much of the end-to-end equipment as was already in use in the PSTN. In the 1980s the industry began planning for digital services assuming they would follow much the same pattern as voice services, and conceived a vision of end-to-end circuit switched services, known as the Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network (B-ISDN). The B-ISDN vision has been overtaken by the disruptive technology of the Internet. Only the oldest parts of the telephone network still use analog technology for anything other than the last mile loop to the end user, and in recent years digital services have been increasingly rolled out to end users using services such as DSL, ISDN, FTTx and cable modem systems.

Many observers[who?] believe that the long term future of the PSTN is to be just one application of the Internet.[citation needed] The QoS guarantee is one aspect that needs to be improved in the voice over IP (VoIP) technology.

There are a number of large private telephone networks which are not linked to the PSTN, usually for military purposes. There are also private networks run by large companies which are linked to the PSTN only through limited gateways, like a large private branch exchange (PBX).

Early history

The first telephones had no network but were in private use, wired together in pairs. Users who wanted to talk to different people had as many telephones as necessary for the purpose. A user who wished to speak whistled into the transmitter until the other party heard. Soon, however, a bell was added for signalling, and then a switchhook, and telephones took advantage of the exchange principle already employed in telegraph networks. Each telephone was wired to a local telephone exchange, and the exchanges were wired together with trunks. Networks were connected together in a hierarchical manner until they spanned cities, countries, continents and oceans. This was the beginning of the PSTN, though the term was unknown for many decades.

Automation introduced pulse dialing between the phone and the exchange, and then among exchanges, followed by more sophisticated address signaling including multi-frequency, culminating in the SS7 network that connected most exchanges by the end of the 20th century.

Digital channel

Main article: Telephone exchange

Although the network was created using analog voice connections through manual switchboards, automated telephone exchanges replaced most switchboards, and later digital switch technologies were used. Most switches now use digital circuits between exchanges, with analog two-wire circuits still used to connect to most telephones.

The basic digital circuit in the PSTN is a 64 kbit/s channel, originally designed by Bell Labs, designated Digital Signal 0 (DS0). To carry a typical phone call from a calling party to a called party, the analog audio signal is digitized at an 8 kHz sample rate using 8-bit pulse code modulation (PCM). The call is then transmitted from one end to another via telephone exchanges. The call is switched using a signaling protocol (Signaling System 7) between the telephone exchanges under an overall routing strategy.

A DS0 circuit is the basic granularity of circuit switching in a telephone exchange. A DS0 is also known as a timeslot because DS0s are aggregated in time-division multiplexing (TDM) equipment to form higher capacity communication links. A Digital Signal 1 (DS1) circuit carries 24 DS0s on a North American or Japanese T-carrier (T1) line, or 32 DS0s (30 for calls plus two for framing and signaling) on an E-carrier (E1) line used in most other countries. In modern networks, the multiplexing function is moved as close to the end user as possible, usually into cabinets at the roadside in residential areas, or into large business premises.

The timeslots are conveyed from the initial multiplexer to the exchange over a set of equipment collectively known as the access network. The access network and inter-exchange transport of the PSTN use synchronous optical transmission, for example, SONET and Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technologies, although some parts still use the older PDH technology.

Within the access network, there are a number of reference points defined. Most of these are of interest mainly to ISDN but one the V reference point is of more general interest. This is the reference point between a primary multiplexer and an exchange. The protocols at this reference point were standardized in ETSI areas as the V5 interface.

U.S. and Canadian telephone switch hierarchy

It has been suggested that Via Net Loss be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)

AT&T PSTN Office Classification Hierarchy

In order to organize automated operator dialing, and later Direct Distance Dialing (DDD), AT&T divided the various switches in its network in to a hierarchy containing five levels (or classes). This was a formal expansion of the network structure that had developed within AT&T Long Lines as local telephone exchanges had been connected together. As long distance calling was originally established, it could take up to seven minutes to complete a connection to another major city, and small points would need to have “call back” appointments made with long lead times for circuits to be reserved.

It should be noted that this hierarchy has been obsolete since the early 1980s, but it lives on in the terms “Class 4” and “Class 5”, referring to tandem and end-office switches respectively. The PSTN in the United States was essentially restructured with the 1984 Divestiture of AT&T. The old Long Lines network remained with AT&T, but its internal routing became non-hierarchical with the introduction of more advanced computer-controlled switching. Each major long distance carrier can have its own internal routing policies, though they generally start with the same principles and even components.

With Divestiture, the network in the US was divided into Local Access and Transport Areas (LATAs), calls within which were carried by Local Exchange Carriers (LECs), while calls between them were carried by Interexchange carriers (IXCs). LATAs generally have one or more tandem switches which interconnect end office switches.

While the following discussion refers to AT&T and (principally) to the United States, it is important to remember that until 1956, AT&T controlled Bell Canada and thus influenced corporate decisions north of the border. Bell Canada provided local operations in most of Ontario and Quebec, and both in its capacity as the largest telecommunications carrier in Canada and because of its historic operations in the Atlantic and Prairie provinces, dominated decisions over long distance practices. Canadian authorities agreed that integration of Canadian long distance services into a trans-national network was valuable to both countries, so that U.S. and Canadian services were integrated for networking capabilities at an early stage into what eventually became the foundation for the North American Numbering Plan area.

By the mid-1920s, a revised manual system where “local” toll operators connected tandem routes (a process formally called Combined Line and Recording) as needed to complete telephone calls, reduced the process to an average of two minutes, but still meant that some complex routing might interconnect as many as sixteen points! As long distance services grew in the Contiguous Continental US (48 states) and Canada, the amount of overhead equipment and people required to determine and establish Rates and Routes became excessive. As technology improved, network design included consideration of more automated and defined procedures. Thus, beginning with a switch installed in Philadelphia PA in 1943, AT&T began to automate the system, and establish a new switch hierarchy, which lasted until the breakup of AT&T in the 1980s.

The underlying principle of the five-level hierarchy was to provide economies of scale by establishing direct connections between centralized call “collection points” (essentially the Class 4 offices) where economically feasible, and to provide additional concentration points (Class 1 through 3) to handle overflow traffic that could not be handled directly, or to handle traffic to locations which were less likely to be dialed from a given point – usually longer distances and/or smaller locations in other parts of the North American dialing plan. The North American plan differed from those of other continents in the existence of three concentration levels of hierarchy for domestic (here defined as including all those points “within” the dialing plan) calls, a need not required where the larger geographic area was broken into several national plan jurisdictions. However, it is important to note that this was not a strict hierarchy of absolute levels. If enough call traffic existed between geographic areas, for example, a Class 4 office could have direct trunk connections not only to a Class 3 office, but to a Class 2 or Class 1 office, and vice versa. For example, the Class 2 switch in Toronto (OTORON0101T2) had connections not only to the Class 1 switch in Montral (MTRLPQ0201T1), but to the Class 1 switch in White Plains (WHPLNY0201T1), one of the Class 2 switches in New York City (NYCMNYAA02T2) and a Class 3 switch in Buffalo (BFLONYFR04T3). Network engineers re-worked the system as necessary to balance off call completion percentages with budgetary limitations. In fact, minor changes were made almost every month.

Initially excluded from the development of the North American network were locations that eventually would become part of the North American Numbering Plan Area – Alaska, Hawaii, some other United States possessions, various outlying Northern and rural portions of Canada, and much of the Caribbean. These areas were handled as International Calls until more advanced computer hardware and software allowed them to be included in the automated, integrated systems in later decades. After the spread of stored program control switching, many services of Class 1 through 3 could be delegated to newer switches in the class 4 and 5 offices, and that portion of the network became obsolete, although it was partially replaced by the establishment of multiple long distance carrier networks, connected to the local networks through their points of presence.

Class 1 (regional center)

The class 1 office was the Regional Center (RC). Regional centers served three purposes in the North American toll network (a) their connections were the “last resort” for final setup of calls when routes between centers lower in the hierarchy were not available (b) they were initially staffed by engineers who had the authority to block portions of the network within the region in case of emergencies or network congestion – although these functions were transferred after 1962 to the Network Control/Operations Center and the distributed Network Management Centers (see below) (c) they provided collection points (until the development of more advanced computer hardware and software for toll operators) for circuits that would be passed along to one of the international overseas gateways (which operated as special centers outside the formal North American hierarchy). The regional centers updated each other on the status of every circuit in the network. These centers would then reroute traffic around the trouble spots and keep each informed at all times. There were twelve Regional Centers in North America, ten in the United States, nine of which were operated by AT&T (White Plains, NY, Wayne, PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Norway, IL [a rural crossroads west of Chicago at the intersection of US highway 52 and IL highway 71 – an underground office built with hardened construction to withstand nuclear attack], Conyers, GA in Rockdale County, St Louis, MO, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, and Sacramento, CA), one by GTE (San Bernardino, CA). Two centres in Canada were operated on behalf of the Trans-Canada Telephone System, one by Bell Canada (Montral, PQ), and one by Saskatchewan Telephone, (Regina, SK).

For control and oversight of the entire network hierarchy, AT&T established a Network Control Center in New York City in 1962, renamed the Network Operations Center and relocated to Bedminster, NJ in 1977. Engineering supervision was also centralized in eight regional Network Management Centers. The realignment and dispersion of functions were done, in part, to ensure maximum network integrity in the event of a national emergency, a major concern in that era. The basic structure of this unit, although significantly altered since the AT&T divestiture in the 1980s, still exists as the Global Operations Center, with domestic regional centers in Colorado and Georgia.

Class 2 (sectional center)

The class 2 office was the Sectional Center (SC). The sectional center typically connected major toll centers within one or two states or provinces, or a significant portion of a large state or province, to provide interstate or interprovincial connections for long-distance calls. At various times, there were between 50 and 75 active class two offices in the network.

Class 3 (primary center)

The class 3 office was the Primary Center (PC). Calls being made beyond the limits of a small geographical area where circuits are not connected directly between class 4 toll offices would be passed from the toll center to the primary center. These locations use high usage trunks to complete connection between toll centers. The primary center never served dial tone to the user. The number of primary centers in the network fluctuated from time to time, ranging between 150 and 230.

Class 4 (toll center)

Main article: Class 4 telephone switch

The class 4 office is the Toll Center (TC), Toll Point (TP), or Intermediate Point (IP). A call going between two end offices not directly connected together, or whose direct trunks are busy, is routed through the toll center. The toll center is also used to connect to the long-distance network for calls where added costs are incurred, such as operator handled services. This toll center may also be called the tandem office because calls have to pass through this location to get to another part of the network. Toll centers might have been operated either as interstate facilities, under the operation of AT&T Long Lines (GTE in a few cases), or by local telephone companies, handling long distance traffic to points within a particular operating company territory. Class 4 offices continue to exist, although with considerable changes, as they handle local exchange company interconnections, locally charged or long distance rated, or provide facilities for connection to long distance company points of presence.

Class 5 (local exchange)

Main article: Class 5 telephone switch

The class 5 office is the local exchange or end office. It delivers dial tone to the customer. The end office, also called a branch exchange, is the closest connection to the end customer. Over 19,000 end offices in the United States alone provide basic dial tone services.

In modern times only the terms Class 4 and Class 5 are much used, as any tandem office is referred to as a Class 4. This change was prompted in great part by changes in the power of switches and the relative cost of transmission, both of which tended to flatten the switch hierarchy. The breakup of the Bell System, and the need for each of the surviving regional operating companies to handle long distance interconnections, also promoted the inclusion of inter-regional and international processing through larger Class 4 offices.

International overseas call centers

The special requirements of placing calls to locations outside main Canadian/United States points meant that these calls were handled by special operators in locations where connections could be monitored to other countries. The technology to automate these connections through “regular” operator traffic positions began to develop in the 1960s (see Bell Laboratories Record 42:7, July-August 1964). As the decade of the 1970s progressed, North American customers who were served by electronic offices began to be able to directly dial to an increasing number of international points, a service known as IDDD (International Direct Distance Dialing), (service between ESS offices in New York and London began on March 1, 1970). However, since points could not be connected until equipment in both countries was converted to electronic switching, implementation to many locations took some time, and while the majority of calls began to be connected via automated systems by the 1990s – after the termination of the five-level hierarchy – the majority of countries were still connected via manual intervention until the beginning of the 21st century.

Please note that the currently attached diagram of switch hierarchy is incorrect, as it identifies Class 1 points with International switching. International connections were located in places generally close to cable, later satellite, termination locations, and were not directly related to Class 1 switches. Major international connection points were located in Oakland, California; Miami, Florida; and New York, New York, with a number of secondary international operator toll points. Only after the rapid expansion of ESS terminal offices did operator handling of international calls begin to be off-loaded into the domestic network structure, as international calling services began to be customer dialable, ca. the mid-1980s. This in part paralleled the demise of the five-level hierarchy, so identification of international switches and class one offices is incorrect.

UK telephone switch hierarchy

The forerunner of British Telecom, the General Post Office, also organized its intercity trunk network along similar hierarchical lines to that of North America. However, because of the significantly smaller geographic area involved, fewer levels of connection were required, and no formal numbering of class offices was made.

There were a few special exceptions to the following description, notably those involving Northern Ireland, some of the Channel Dependencies, and the few locations in England which were served by non-GPO companies, such as Hull (K


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