Key Telecommunications Concepts
Mark Norris · 2001
The telephone network is the product of nearly a hundred years of engineering innovation. As it has evolved from a novel method of communication into a global machine, specialist methods have been developed to make it work, maintain and improve it. At the same time, this network has been used to carry data, to access the internet, to provide remote monitoring and a variety of other things. Hence, the machine has had to be adapted to a range of different service demands and a variety of different traffic types. The fact that all these things are possible stands as a testament to the quality of the network and to the soundness of the basic concepts used in its construction. We have explained these basic principles and illustrated their application. Starting with the fundamental requirements of transmission, switching and signalling, we have explored the solutions used by the telecommunications engineer, where the sheer scale of the task differentiates it from many others, to provide an economical yet effective service. Practical issues such as numbering and management have been addressed and some network products introduced.