Telephony Background

By Vaishali Kulkarni
 Background
• World's largest machine; extends to all countries
• Huge economic and social importance
• Specialized in voice transmission
• Other applications have been created: fax, data etc.
• Basic service: full-duplex voice transmission
• Small end-to-end delays, small delay variation (more than
150ms delay disturbs discussion --note satellites!)
• Call admission control, and accepted calls will complete
• Grows all the time, now mostly growth of mobile networks
• Although most traffic in the telecom networks is now data,
most of the money comes from voice
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 Background
• Telephones are addressed by telephone numbers,
that are unique
• There are special numbers or area codes that
need translation
• The network formed by the end systems
(telephones, faxes, modems etc.) and the
hierarchic switching and transmission systems is
called Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
or informally as Plain Old Telephone System
(POTS).
8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 3
 FOUR WIRE TO TWO WIRE CONVERSION

• In order to provide bidirectional telephony service between

two persons 8 wires (4 pairs) are required.
• Any reduction in the number of wires required will result in
enormous cost economy.

4w to 2w conversion

Time sharing of functions

4
 FOUR WIRE TO TWO WIRE CONVERSION

HYBRID TRANSFORMERS are used at the two ends of a circuit

to convert the 4W circuit into a 2W circuit and vice versa.

HYBRID
4W Trans 4W Rec
TRANSFORMERS

Termination 2W

2 Wire
4W Rec 4W Trans

Transmission systems operate on 4W basis- GO & RETURN

directions are separated using Hybrids.

5
 TIME SHARING OF FUNCTIONS

• Ringing required at the start of the call

• Not required during the speaking phase of the call.
• The pair used for speech can be time shared for ringing
by both ends at the start of the call.
• Once the speech starts, the pair carries only speech in
both directions.

6
 Telephone Network Architecture

Switching Switching
Office Office

CPE CPE

Transmission Facilities CPE - Customer

Premise Equipment
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 Telephone Network Architecture
• Terminals, Transmission and Switching
– The three basic elements of a communication
network are terminals, transmission systems and
switches.

8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 8

 PUBLIC SWITCHED TELEPHONE NETWORK
PSTN

• LOCAL NETWORK connects subscribers of the local area.

• NATIONAL NETWORK connects subscribers of a country to

each other with the help of local exchanges, TAXs . The
national network routes the international calls to the
Gateway.

• INTERNATIONAL NETWORK establishes links between the

gateway exchanges of national networks

9
 PSTN
STATION A STATION B

OPERATOR OPERATOR

ASSISTED ASSISTED

SERVICES SERVICES
GATEWAY GATEWAY

LOCAL LOCAL
TAX TAX
EXCH EXCH

ACCESS JUNCTION NLD JUNCTION ACCESS

NETWORK
NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK NETWORK

TRANSPORT NETWORK

10
ELEMENTS OF A TELECOM NETWORK

A network is a combination of
NODES
LINKS
TERMINALS

SWITCH, TRANSMISSION MEDIUM, CPE

11
 Basic Telephone Systems - Loops

•The local loop is the telephone line that runs from the
telephone company’s central office to your home or
business.
•The central office is the building that houses the
telephone company’s switching equipment and provides
a local dial tone on your telephone.
•If you place a long distance call, the central office
passes your telephone call off to a long distance
provider.

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Local Loops or Subscriber loops

8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 13

 Trunks
•A trunk is a special telephone line that runs between
central offices and other telephone company switching
centers.
•A trunk is usually digital, high speed, and carries
multiple telephone circuits.
•A trunk is typically a 4-wire circuit, while a telephone
line is a 2-wire circuit.
•Not associated with a single telephone number like a
line is.
•A telephone number consists of an area code, an
exchange, and a subscriber extension.
•The area code and exchange must start with the digits
2-9 to separate them from long distance and operator
8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 14
services.
 Switching Offices

SWITCHING
OFFICE

CONTROL

NETWORK

8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 15

 Transmission Facilities

Switching Trunks Switching

Line Office Office Line

Special
Service
Circuit

8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 16

 Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)

Customer Premise Equipment (CPE) is the

term used to identify any piece of equipment
supplied by the customer to interface with
the PSTN. Examples include:
n Single Line Telephone Set
n Modems or Data Sets
n Private Branch Exchange (PBX)

8/3/2018 Digital Voice Communication 17

Subscriber loop Design
 OPERATION OF THE TELEPHONE SUBSET

A telephone subset consists of an earpiece, which we may call the

receiver; the mouthpiece, which we may call the transmitter; and some
control circuitry in the telephone cradle-stand.
 SUBSCRIBER LOOP DESIGN

• Basic Design Considerations

• Telephone subscribers are connected via a subscriber
loop to a local serving switch that can connect a call to
another subscriber served by that same switch or via
other switches through the PSTN to a distant called
subscriber.
• The conventional subscriber loop is a wire pair.
• Present commercial telephone service provides for
both transmission and reception on the same pair of
wires that connect the subscriber to her/his local
serving switch. In other words, it is two-wire operation.
 SUBSCRIBER LOOP DESIGN
• The subscriber loop is a dc loop in that it is a wire pair
supplying a metallic path for the following:
– Talk battery.
– An ac ringing voltage for the bell or other alerting device on the
telephone instrument supplied from a special ringing voltage
source.
– Current to flow through the loop when the telephone subset is
taken out of its cradle (off-hook), which tells the switch that it
requires “access” and causing line seizure at the local serving
switch.
– The telephone dial that, when operated, makes and breaks the
3

dc current on the closed loop, which indicates to the switching

equipment the telephone number of the distant telephone with
which communication is desired.
 SUBSCRIBER LOOP DESIGN

• The typical subscriber loop is supplied its

battery voltage by means of a battery feed
circuit .
• Battery voltages have been standardized at
−48 Vdc.
• It is a negative voltage to minimize cathodic
reaction.
• This is a form of corrosion that can be a
thermal noise source.
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• It is desirable from an economic standpoint to permit

subscriber loop lengths to be as long as possible.
• Thus the subscriber serving area could become very
large.
• This, in turn, would reduce the number of serving
switches required per unit area affording greater
centralization, less land to buy, fewer buildings, simpler
maintenance, and so forth.
• Unfortunately, there are other tradeoffs forcing the
urban/suburban telecommunication system designer
to smaller serving areas and more switches.
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• The subscriber loop plant, sometimes called

outside plant, is the largest single investment
that a telecommunication company has.
• Physically, we can extend a subscriber loop
very long distances: 5, 10, 20, 50, or even
100 miles. Such loops require expensive
conditioning.
• The two basic criteria, which limit loop
length, must be considered when designing a
subscriber loop:
– Attenuation (loss) limits
– Resistance limits
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• Attenuation (loss) must be limited to keep within

loudness rating requirements.
• If a subscriber loop has too much loss, the telephone
user signal level suffers and she/he cannot hear the
signal well enough; the user may consider the
connection unsatisfactory.
• In North America the maximum loss objective is 8 dB
for a subscriber loop. In some other countries, that
value is 7 dB.
• Remember that it takes two subscriber loops to make a
connection: the subscriber loop of the calling
subscriber and the loop of the called subscriber.
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• The attenuation is referenced to 1000 Hz in

North America and 800 Hz elsewhere in the
world.
• In other words, when we measure loss, unless
otherwise stated, it is measured at the
reference frequency.
• Loss (attenuation) is a function of the
diameter of the copper wire making up the
pair and the length of the pair.
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits
• Signaling limits of a subscriber loop are based on dc resistance. When we
go “off-hook” with a telephone, a certain minimum amount of current
must flow in the loop to actuate the local serving switch.
• The generally accepted minimum loop current value in North America is
20 mA.
• If subscriber loop current is below this value, we have exceeded the
• signaling limits.
• Applying Ohm’s law, the loop resistance should not exceed 2400 .
• Budget 400 for the battery feed bridge and we are left with 2000 for the
loop itself.
• We must account for the resistance of the subset wiring. Budget 300 for
this.
• Thus the resistance of the wire itself in the loop must not exceed 1700 .
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• Once we exceed the signaling limit (the loop resistance,

wire only, exceeds 1700 ), when the telephone goes off-
hook, no dial tone is returned.
• This just means that there is insufficient loop current to
actuate the switch, telling the switch we wish to make a
call.
• When there is sufficient current, the switch, in turn, returns
the dial tone.
• When there is insufficient loop current, we hear nothing.
• If we cannot effect signaling, the telephone just will not
operate.
• So between the two limiting factors, loss and resistance,
resistance is certainly the most important of the criteria.
 Subscriber Loop Length Limits

• The maximum loop loss is taken from the

national transmission plan.
• In North America, it is 8 dB measured at 1000
Hz.
• We will use the maximum resistance value
calculated above, namely 1700 (wire only).
 SIGNALLING LIMIT

Signaling limit is the maximum resistance permitted for the

local loop beyond which the signaling functions will fail.

Maximum loop resistance permissible is 1500 ohms

L
M PILLAR
T D
E F
DP

PRIMARY CABLE
DISTRIBUTION CABLE
0.4 mm
CONDUCTOR 0.5 mm CONDUCTOR

21 July 2009 30
 TRANSMISSION LIMIT

Speech signals are spread over 300 Hz to 3400 Hz.

From basic transmission line theory we know that signal
undergoes attenuation (loss) as it travels along the line.
Transmission limit is the maximum value of attenuation
permissible in the local loop beyond which the speech signal
will become weak.

Maximum attenuation permissible is 7.5 dB at 1000Hz.

21 July 2009 31
 CABLE CHARACTERISTICS

Diameter of Resistance per loop Attenuation at 1kHz

conductors km

0.40 mm 280 ohms 1.80 dB per km

0.50 mm 182 ohms 1.40 dB per km
0.63 mm 113 ohms 1.10 dB per km

Insulation between two conductors forming a pair : 5000 M ohms per km.
Capacitance between conductors of the same pair: 0.04 microfarads per
km

21 July 2009 32
 TUTORIAL

Primary cable Length : 1.8 km (0.4 mm)

Distribution cable length : 0.8 km (0.5 mm)
What is the transmission loss?
What is the loop resistance?
Are they within limits?

21 July 2009 33
 TUTORIAL

Primary cable Length : 1.8 km (0.4 mm)

Distribution cable length : 0.8 km (0.5 mm)
What is the transmission loss?
What is the loop resistance?
Are they within limits?

Transmission loss of Primary : 1.8 km x 1.8 dB per km = 3.24 dB

Transmission loss of distribution: 0.8 km x 1.4 dB per km =1.12 dB
Total loss = 4.36 dB
Total loop resistance = [(1.8km x 280 ) + (0.8km x 182)] =649.6 
Both are within limits.

21 July 2009 34
 TUTORIAL continued

Primary cable length: 3 km (0.4 mm)

Distribution cable length : 2 km (0.5 mm)
Will this arrangement satisfy the network parameters?

21 July 2009 35
 TUTORIAL continued

Primary cable length: 3 km (0.4 mm)

Distribution cable length : 2 km (0.5 mm)
Will this arrangement satisfy the network parameters?

Loop resistance = (3 x 280 ohms) + ( 2 x 182 ohms)

= 840 + 364 ohms = 1204 ohms
Transmission loss= (3 x 1.8) + (2 x 1.4)
= 5.4 + 2.8 = 8.2 dB not permissible
Requires re-engineering.

21 July 2009 36
 Extending the Subscriber Loop

• In many situations, subscribers will reside outside of the maximum

subscriber loop lengths described above.
• There are five generally accepted methods that can be used to
extend these maximums. They are:
1. Increase conductor diameter (covered above).
2. Use amplifiers and/or range extenders.
3. Employ inductive loading.
4. Use digital subscriber line (DSL) techniques.
5. Employ remote concentrators or switches.

• Amplifiers in the subscriber loop extend the transmission range.

Perhaps better said, they compensate for loop loss.
• Commonly such amplifiers are set for about 7-dB gain.
• Care must be used to assure that dc signaling is not lost.
• Inductive Loading.
• Inductive loading of a subscriber loop (or metallic VF
• trunk) tends to reduce the transmission loss at the
expense of amplitude–frequency response beyond
3000–3400 Hz, depending on the loading technique
employed.
• Loading a particular subscriber loop (or metallic pair
trunk) consists of inserting series inductances (loading
coils) into the loop at fixed distance intervals.
• Adding load coils tends to:
– Decrease the velocity of propagation
– Increase the impedance
 LOADING COIL

1
4
Unloaded
Attenuation dB

cable
1
2

Loaded
1 88 mH
0

8
500 1000 1500 2000
2500 3000
6
21 July 2009 Frequency Hz 39
 USE OF REMOTE CONCENTRATORS
PROCESSOR
EXCHANGE

1 ROUTE T To other exchanges

1
SWITCH U
CONC BOCK
1000
120 CCS
Analog concentration
+
EXCH CONTROL SYSTEM
A to D converter
ANALOG

DIGITAL
DIGITAL
TRANS LINK
ROUTE
M L L L

D CONC T T SW T

F U U U
BLOCK

LOCAL
CONTROL

EXCH CONTROL SYSTEM

REMOTE CONCENTRATOR
PROCESSOR 40
EXCHANGE
 RLU – RSU

Remote Concentrator Unit (Remote Line Unit) cannot provide connectivity

between subscribers connected to it. The connectivity has to be provided
only by the Processor Exchange. This results in use of the Transmission
Link twice for each call. If all the links are busy, even calls between
subscribers of the RCU will be lost.
In order to overcome this difficulty, switching function is also provided
along with concentrator. Such a facility is known as Remote Switching Unit
(RSU).
Usually RSUs are provided where the traffic is relatively high.

41
 Tutorial
• In a subscriber loop that contains a series resistance of 300
ohms to protect the - 40V batteries in the exchange, a
normalized telephone draws 10 mA and its standard input d.c.
resistance is 50 ohms. Calculate the maximum distance at
which a subscriber can get good speech reproduction if a
cable of 52 ohms/km resistance is used. If a standard hand set
of 30 mA current is used what will be the change in distance?
 Tutorial
• Let RL be the line loop resistance
• Normalized Microphone current = 10 m A
• Telephone set resistance = 50 ohms, Series resistance = 300 ohms
• Battery voltage = 40 V
• I =V/R 10 x 10 -3 = 40 .
• (300+50+ RL)
• Hence 3500 + 10 RL = 40,000
• 10 RL = 36500 ohms; RL = 3650 ohms
• Maximum distance from exchange = 3650/52/2 = 35 Km
 Tutorial
• (ii) When hand set current = 30 mA
• 30 x 10 -3 = 40 .
• (300+50+ RL)
• Hence 30 (350+ RL) = 40,000
• 10500+30 RL = 40,000 ; 30 RL = 29500; RL = 983 ohms
• Maximum distance from exchange = 983/52/2 = 9.45 km
• The maximum distance of subscriber from the exchange changes from 35 kms to
9.45 kms.
 Tutorial
• An exchange uses a –40 V battery to drive subscriber lines. A
resistance of 250 ohms is placed in series with the battery to
protect it from short circuits. The subscribers are required to
use a standard telephone set which offers a dc resistance of
50 ohms.The microphone requires 23mA for proper
functioning. Given DC resistance of 133 ohms/km, find the
farthest distance from the exchange at which the subscriber
can be located .
 Tutorial
• Let R be the line loop resistance, using the relation I = V/R,
the value of R can be calculated as
• 23 x 10 – 3 = 40 .
• (250+50+R R = 1439 ohms
•
• Loop length= 1439/133 = 10.82 km
• Therefore, the farthest distance at which the subscriber can
be located is 10.82/2 = 5.41 km
QUALITY OF SERVICE AND
TELECOMMUNICATION
IMPAIRMENTS
Loudness Rating
 Determination of Loudness Rating
OLR = SLR + CLR + RLR.
• The overall loudness rating (OLR) is defined as the loudness
loss between the speaking subscriber’s mouth and the
listening subscriber’s ear via a telephone connection.
• The send loudness rating (SLR) is defined as the loudness
loss between the speaking subscriber’s mouth and an
electrical interface in the network.
• The receive loudness rating (RLR) is the loudness loss
between an electrical interface in the network and the
listening subscriber’s ear.
• The circuit loudness rating (CLR) is the loudness loss
between two electrical interfaces in a connection or circuit,
with each interface terminated by its nominal impedance
 Transmission Impairments

• The basic impairments found in all

telecommunication transmission systems.
• These are:
• Amplitude (or attenuation) distortion
• Phase distortion
• Noise
• Cross Talk
• Echo and singing
 Transmission Impairments
• Amplitude Distortion
• The IEEE defines attenuation distortion
(amplitude distortion) as the change in
attenuation at any frequency with respect to that
of a reference frequency.
• Based upon the CCITT definition, the voice
channel occupies the band from 300 to 3400 Hz.
We call this the passband.
• Attenuation distortion can be avoided if all
frequencies within the passband are subjected to
the same loss (or gain).
 Transmission Impairments

•Typical attenuation distortion across a voice channel

bandpass filter.
•Crosshatched areas are response specifications, whereas
the wavy line is the measured response.
 Transmission Impairments

• CCITT recommends 800 Hz as the reference; in

North America the reference is 1000 Hz.
• Filters are employed in most active circuits (and
in some passive circuits) and are major causes of
attenuation distortion.
• When filters or filter-like devices3 are placed in
tandem, attenuation distortion tends to sum.
• Two identical filters degrade attenuation
distortion twice as much as just one filter.
 Transmission Impairments

• Phase Distortion
• The velocity of propagation of the signal tends to
vary with frequency because of the electrical
characteristics associated with the network.
• Again, the biggest culprit is filters.
• Considering the voice channel, therefore, the
velocity of propagation tends to increase toward
band center and decrease toward band edge.
 Transmission Impairments
• Phase distortion is often measured by a parameter called envelope
delay distortion (EDD).
• Mathematically, envelope delay is the derivative of the phase shift
with respect to frequency.
• The maximum variation in envelope delay over a band of
frequencies is called envelope delay distortion.
• Therefore, EDD is always a difference between the envelope
• delay at one frequency and that at another frequency of interest in
the passband.
• It should be noted that envelope delay is often defined the same as
group delay—that is, the ratio of change, with angular frequency, of
phase shift between two points in the network
 Transmission Impairments
Noise
• Noise, in its broadest definition, consists of any
undesired signal in a communication circuit.
• The subject of noise and noise reduction is probably
the most important single consideration in
transmission engineering. It is the major limiting factor
in overall system performance.
• For our discussion in this text, noise is broken down
into four categories:
– 1. Thermal noise
– 2. Intermodulation noise
– 3. Impulse noise
– 4. Crosstalk
 Transmission Impairments

Crosstalk
• Crosstalk is the unwanted coupling between
signal paths. There are essentially three causes of
crosstalk:
1. Electrical coupling between transmission media, such
as between wire pairs on a voice-frequency (VF) cable
system and on digital (PCM) cable systems.
2. Poor control of frequency response (i.e., defective
filters or poor filter design).
3. Nonlinear performance in analog (FDM) multiplex
systems.
 Transmission Impairments

Crosstalk

• There are two types of crosstalk:

1. Intelligible, where at least four words are
intelligible to the listener from extraneous
conversation(s) in a 7-second period.
2. Unintelligible, with crosstalk resulting from
any other form of disturbing effects of one
channel on another.
 Transmission Impairments

Crosstalk

• Intelligible crosstalk presents the greatest

impairment because of its distraction to the
listener.
• Distraction is considered to be caused either by
fear of loss of privacy or primarily by the user of
the primary line consciously or unconsciously
trying to understand what is being said on the
secondary or interfering circuits; this would be
true for any interference that is syllabic in nature.
 Transmission Impairments

Crosstalk
• Two basic forms of crosstalk of concern to
telecommunications engineers are :
– Near end crosstalk (NEXT)
– Far end crosstalk (FEXT)
• Near end crosstalk refers to coupling from a
transmitter into a receiver at a common location.
Often this form is most troublesome because of a
large difference in power levels between the
transmitted and received signals.
• Far end crosstalk refers to unwanted coupling into a
received signal from a transmitter at a distant
location.
Near – end and Far – end crosstalk

FEXT

NEXT
 ECHO AND SINGING
• Echo and singing are two important impairments that
impact QoS.
• Echo is when a talker hears her/his own voice delayed.
The annoyance is a function of the delay time (i.e., the
time between the launching of a syllable by a talker
and when the echo of that syllable is heard by the
same talker). It is also a function of the intensity (level)
of the echo, but to some lesser extent.
• Singing is audio feedback. It is an “ear-splitting” howl,
much like the howl one gets by placing a public address
microphone in front of a loudspeaker.
 ECHO AND SINGING
• Echoes and singing occur both occur as a result of
transmitted signals being coupled into a return path
and fed back to the respective sources.
• The most common cause of this coupling is an
impedance mismatch at a four-wire-to-two-wire
hybrid.
• If only one reflection occurs then talker echo occurs, if
two reflections occurs then listener echo also occurs.
• When the returning signal is repeatedly coupled back
into the forward path to produce oscillations, singing
occurs.
Generation of Echoes at two wire to
four wire interface
 Echo suppressor circuit

• Echo suppressor operates on four wire circuits by measuring the

speech power in each leg and inserting a large amount of loss (35 dB
typically) in the opposite leg when the power level exceeds a
threshold.
• Thus a return echo is essentially blocked by the high level of
attenuation.
• It converts full duplex into half duplex with energy sensing being the
means for turning the line around.
 Echo Canceller

• It works by simulating the echo path to subtract a

properly delayed and attenuated copy of transmitted
signal from the receive signal to remove echo
components.
• The echo cancellation requires training to determine how
much delay and attenuation are needed to simulate the
echo characteristics of the circuit.