5   Digital Switching Systems

Sydney F. Smith

Introduction

Basic Structure

The most elementary form of a switch network consists of a single square switch, where connection can be made between any one inlet and any one outlet by connecting the associated horizontal and vertical circuits at the point where they cross (i.e., the “crosspoint”). However, to provide a switching system capable of serving say 10,000 subscribers, it would not be economical either to construct a single large switch or to simply gang a large number of smaller switches to form a square matrix of 10,000 × 10,000 crosspoints. A more practical arrangement is to connect the switches in two or more stages.

To illustrate this, Figure 5.1 shows first a single square matrix of ...

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