TELEPHONY

INTRODUCTION

• The public switched telephone system is the largest and

most important communication system in the world
• Public refers to the idea that anyone can connect to it;
switched indicates that anyone can connect to anyone else
• Though originally designed for voice communications,
telephone networks have been adapted to serve data
communications, facsimile, and video
 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK

• The topology of a local calling area (local access and

transport area, or LATA) is indicated in the figure below
HIERARCHIC AL SWITCHED NETWORK
NONHIERARCHICAL LONG-DISTANCE
NETWORK
 THE LOCAL LOOP

• Ordinary telephone systems are often referred to as

POTS (plain old telephone service)
• Normally, each subscriber is connected to the central
office by a single twisted pair of wires
• The wires are twisted to reduce crosstalk
• Future developments include the inclusion of fiber-optic
connections direct to the subscriber for greater
bandwidth
 SIGNALS ON THE LOCAL LOOP

• A phone not in use is referred to as on the hook

• The central office maintains a voltage of about +48 volts
across the line
• A telephone on the hook appears as an open to the central
office
• When the telephone is in use, a current flows in the loop
• The presence of this current signals the central office to
make a line available (seizing the line)
• A telephone off the hook drops a voltage between 5 and 10
volts across it
LOCAL LOOP
 DIALING

• Dialing can be accomplished in two ways:

• Pulse dialing uses interruptions in the current loop to
dial a number
• Dual-tone multifrequency dialing (DTMF) uses two tones
for dialing. Also known as touch dialing
 THE CENTRAL OFFICE SWITCH

• Early telephone switchboards

were manually operated and
used patch cords
• The first automatic telephone
switch was the Strowger step-by-
step switch
• The crossbar switch superseded
the Strowger switch
• The crosspoint switch allows the
connection of any incoming line
to any outgoing line
 THE SUBSCRIBER LINE INTERFACE C ARD

• The local loop connects to the central office by means of a

subscriber line interface card (SLIC or line card)
• The functions of the card are:
• Battery supply
• Overvoltage protection
• Ringing
• Supervision (monitoring hook status)
• Coding
• Hybrid
• Testing
 THE TELEPHONE INSTRUMENT

• Ordinary telephones use

carbon microphones and
magnetic earphones
(transmitters and receivers)
• The carbon microphone needs
DC bias current to operate
• Carbon microphones are
reliable and simple but have
poor audio quality
• Modern telephones often use
electret condenser
microphones to achieve better
quality
 SIMPLE TELEPHONE SYSTEM

• A single twisted-pair line is

required to carry both sides
of the conversation, thus
providing full-duplex
communication
SIGNALS AND NOISE IN THE TELEPHONE
SYSTEM

• Again, two of the most important characteristics of any

communication system are bandwidth and signal-to-noise
ratio
• The bandwidth of a voice-grade telephone system is about
3.2 kHz
• Noise in a system increases in relation to the distance
from the source
• Repeaters are used to increase the signal level and
improve the signal-to-noise ratio
 FREQUENCY-DIVISION
MULTIPLEXING

• Analog telephone signals can be combined (multiplexed)

using FDM
• The channel can be a twisted-pair, a coaxial cable, a
microwave radio link, or satellite
• In FDM, the spectrum is divided among a number of
information signals
• In FDM telephony, the modulation is typically SSB or
SSBSC, and 4 kHz of spectrum is allocated to each
conversation
 FDM HIERARCHY

• The number of conversations transmitted using FDM

depends upon the total bandwidth available
• The channels are grouped according to a hierarchical
structure:
• Group - lowest level
• Supergroup - 5 groups
• Mastergroup - 10 supergroups
• Jumbogroup - 6 mastergroups
• Superjumbogroup - 3 jumbogroups
FDM HIERARCHY
GENERATION OF A GROUP
 DIGITAL TRANSMISSION

• Over the past 30 years, telephone systems have gradually

been converted to digital technology
• PCM is a typical scheme for digital transmission along
telephone lines
 TIME-DIVISION MULTIPLEXING

• DS-1 lines can be used for voice or data transmission using

TDM techniques
 TELEPHONE-NETWORK SIGNALING

• Local-loop signals such as DTMF tones, dial tones, busy

signals, and ringback signals are called in-channel signals
because they use the same channel as the voice, only at
different times
• These signals are AC and in the same range as voice signals
and are also referred to as in-band signals
• DC signals and currents such as on/off-hook signals are
referred to as out-of-band because DC is not part of the
same frequency range as a voice signal
 INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL
NETWORK (ISDN)

• ISDN is designed to allow voice and data to be transmitted

along the same lines
• ISDN provides a way to standardize data and voice
communications without resorting to modems
• ISDN connects at a primary access point with a data rate of
1.544 Mb/s
• One of these channels is the D (data) channel and is used
for setting up and monitoring calls
• The other 23 channels are called B (bearer) channels and
can be used for voice or data
 ASYMMETRICAL DIGITAL
SUBSCRIBER LINE (ADSL)

• ADSL lines use the

frequencies above the
voice range for high-
speed data while leaving
the use of the local loop
for analog telephony
intact
• Typical ADSL uses include
Internet access and
interactive television