chapter two

Introduction to Public Switched Telephone Network

(PSTN)
 History of PSTN
- is the network of the world's public circuit-switched telephone networks
 The first telephones had no network but were in private use, wired together in pairs
 To talk to n other telephone owners separate wires had to be strung to all n houses
 Bell saw this and formed the Bell Telephone Company
 Opened its first switching office (in New Haven, Connecticut) in 1878
 The company ran a wire to each customer's house or office
 Pretty soon, people wanted to make long-distance calls between cities, so the Bell system
began to connect the switching offices
 Connecting every switching office to every other switching office by means of a wire
between them quickly became unmanageable
 So second-level switching offices were invented
 Networks were connected in a hierarchical manner until they spanned cities, countries,
continents and oceans
 This was the beginning of the PSTN
 Public switched telephone network
 The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the network of the world's public
circuit-switched telephone network.
 It consists of telephone lines, fiber optics cables, microwave transmission links, cellular
network, communication satellites, and undersea telephone cables, all inter-connected by
switching centers, thus allowing any telephone in the world to communicate with any
other.
 Originally a network of fixed-line analog telephone systems, the PSTN is now almost
entirely digital in its core and includes mobile as well as fixed telephones.
CIRCUIT-SWITCHED NETWORKS
A circuit-switched network consists of a set of switches connected by physical links
• When you places a telephone call, the switching equipment within the telephone
system seeks out a physical path all the way from your telephone to the receiver's
telephone
• When end system A needs to communicate with end system M,
- system A needs to request a connection to M and
- must be accepted by all switches as well as by M itself
• After the dedicated path is established, data transfer can take place
Figure 1.12 Circuit Switching Network
 PSTN Architecture
Consists the following nodes:
1. Customer Premises equipment(CPE) nodes
2. Switch nodes
3. Transmission nodes and
4. Service nodes
1. CPE Nodes: is the equipment that is used at the customer’s premises
• Its main function is to transmit and receive information
2. Switching Nodes: route the traffic between CPE nodes through a network of switch
nodes
3. Transmission Nodes: Transmission nodes include transmission media and transport
equipments such as repeaters, multiplexers and amplifiers
4. Service Nodes: responsible for connection setup, connection holding, charging and
control information between nodes.
 Multiplexing
- set of techniques that allows the simultaneous transmission of multiple signals across a
single data link
 A device that performs the multiplexing is called a multiplexer (MUX),
 Device that performs the reverse process is called a de-multiplexer (DEMUX)
There are two basic multiplexing techniques:
1. Frequency-division multiplexing and
2. Time-division multiplexing
1. Frequency division Multiplexing: used for analog communication
Frequency spectrum is divided into several non-overlapping frequency bands
• Each user uses a unique band
• It uses multiple channels, called sub channels, of a single channel
• Best used when the band width required by each user can be easily predicted.
2. Time Division Multiplexing: used for digital communication
• All senders use the same frequency but at different points in time
• A channel gets the whole spectrum for a certain amount of time
• One guy talks at a time
 ISDN (Integrated Service Digital Network)
 is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video,
data, and other network services over the traditional circuits of the public switched
telephone network
 ISDN is a digital circuit switching technology that was designed to replace the old
telephone network
 Prior to ISDN, the telephone system was viewed as a way to transport voice, with some
special services available for data
 The key feature of ISDN is that it integrates speech and data on the same lines, adding
features that were not available in the classic telephone system.
 ISDN is a circuit-switched telephone network system, which also provides access to packet
switched network.
 It offers circuit-switched connections (for either voice or data), and packet-switched
connections (for data).
ISDN Level of Services: ISDN has two major levels of services:
1. Basic Rate Interface
2. Primary Rate Interface
1. Basic Rate Interface (BRI): Targeted to home and small business users
 Designed to operate over standard telephone lines
 It converts the regular telephone wires into three signaling channels
 Two 64 kilobit per second (Kbps) Bearer (B) channels: each carry user information (voice
and data),
 While one 16Kbps Data (D) channel carries call set-up and signaling information
 The BRI is also referred to as a 2B+D connection
2. The Primary Rate Interface (PRI):
- Targeted to large corporate customers
- Consists of 23 64-kbit/s B channels and one 64-kbit/s D-channel using a T1 line
- Referred to as "23B + D", (North American and Japanese standard) or
- 30 B-channels and one D-channel using an E1 line (Europe/rest of world).
 Data Communication and the Internet
- is the exchange of data between two devices via some form of transmission medium
- The effectiveness of a data communications system depends on four fundamental
characteristics:

Delivery: The system must deliver data to the correct destination

Accuracy: The system must deliver the data accurately
Timeliness: The system must deliver data in a timely manner
Data delivered late are useless
Jitter: Jitter refers to the variation in the packet arrival time
 Data Transmission
 There are three types of data transmission channels:
 A/Narrowband: It is the smaller band and has slow data transmission rate.
Ex Telegraph line.
 B/Voice band: It is the wider band and has better data transmission rate than the
narrow band. Ex telephone lines are used for voice band channel
 C/Broadband: It is the widest band has used to transmit large volume of data with high
speed, Ex. (Oxide cable such as TV aerial lead), circuits, communications sate bites and
optical fibers are used for broadband channels.
Modes of Data Transmission
Their are three types of communication channels/ modes of communication.
1) Simplex
2) Half-duplex
3) Full-duplex
A. Simplex :- In this transmission signals are transmitted in only one direction: One station
is transmitter and the other is receiver It is takes place in only one direction.
E.g. Radio, TV broadcasting.
 The device at either end is ether send only or receive only.
B. Half-Duplex: it is a transmission of data in both direction but only in one direction at a
time.
This is a good for transmissions in which case the receiver has to acknowledge that it has
received the message back to the sender.
E.g. A talk-back radio
 Full-Duplex: it allow transmission of data both direction simultaneously. . The medium
carries signals in both directions at the same time.
E.g. Mobil, telephone
 Speed of Data Transmission
 Bits per second (band) is the standard measure used to express the speed of
transmission in a given medium.
 Bandwidth:- is the difference b/n the highest and the lowest frequencies that can be
transmitted down a single line.
 Various media of communication can be described in terms of bandwidth.
 The greater the bandwidth the higher the capacity of the medium expressed in bits per
second.
Brief History of the Internet
 The Internet grew out of an experiment begun in the 1960's by the U.S. Department of
Defense. Its goal was to create a method for widely separated computers to transfer data
efficiently even in the event of a nuclear attack.
 If part of the network were damaged or destroyed, the rest of the system still had to
work.
 That network was ARPANET, which linked U.S. scientific and academic researchers. It
was the forerunner of today's Internet.
 Today's Internet is made up of a loose collection of interconnected commercial and
noncommercial computer networks, including on-line information services to which users
subscribe.
 Servers are scattered around the world, linked to the Internet using modems, phone lines,
and satellite links.
 Today the Internet has grown to thousands of regional networks that can connect millions
of users.
 It has grown explosively in the 1990s to thousands of regional networks that can connect
millions of users.
 There are millions of server computers on the Internet, each providing some type of
information or service.
 The number of users of the Internet is harder to measure.
 Because the Internet is a world-wide distributed collection of computers rather than one
central computer that everyone ties into, there is no central, controlling agency,
nor can there ever be (No one is in charge of the Internet).
 There are organizations, which develop technical aspects of this network and set
standards for creating applications on it, but no governing body is in control.
 The Internet backbone, through which Internet traffic flows, is owned by private
companies. Any computer on the Internet that is properly configured can share information
with any other computer found there.
The Internet
Is a vast collection of different networks that use certain common protocols and provide
certain common services.
The Internet is a term used to describe a worldwide network of computer networks
connecting millions of computers around the world.
 The Internet is one of the largest, most widely used network (in fact, a network of networks) that
has evolved and grown overtime. It is a group of two or more networks that are
 Interconnected physically
 Capable of communicating and sharing data with each other
 Able to act together as a single network.
 The Internet connects millions of computers globally and provides worldwide communications to
businesses, homes, schools, and governments.
Advantages of the Internet
• The Internet helps in various ways:
I. To get information
 You could get information about people, products, organizations, research data, electronic
versions of the printed media, etc. from the Internet. You can get easy access to a wealth of
information and entertainment.
• II. To provide information
 Most of what you want to provide could be considered global advertising. The best and
• most inexpensive way to let people know who you are, what you are doing and how you have
done.
 Publishing: including full test articles, reports, abstracts, computer programs, and
demonstrations.
 Extension: in which some of the delays associated with the printed media, may be
reduced.
 Teaching: The possibilities here include both distance learning and assistance for students.
 Sharing/exchanging information with the outside world.
III. Ability to communicate
 The Internet gives people the ability to communicate with other connected computer users
through electronic mail and real time typed conversations (databases, and discussion groups).
 Users will be able to use electronic mails to transmit messages, document/file attachments to
another users within the Intranet or over the Internet.
How big is the Internet?
 It's difficult to judge the size of the Internet. People and systems are being added daily.
 However, it is estimated that in the United States alone, more than 27.5 million people are
connected to the Internet.
 There are over 150,000 unique domain names in the US alone.
 Some of the largest Internet Search Engines have over 30 million web documents listed,
with an annual growth rate exceeding 28%.
 There are more than 65 countries currently connected to the Internet.
Internet Connectivity
 You can connect to the Internet in one of two basic ways:
 dialing into an Internet service provider’s (ISP) computer,
 with a direct connection to an Internet service provider.
 The difference is mainly in the speed and cost. In most cases, you connect to your ISP
using a telephone line modem. This type of connection is called the Dial-up connection.
 Sometimes you go in for a direct connection.
1. Dial-up Connection
To establish a conventional dial-up connection to the Internet, you will need the following
 An account with an ISP ((a company that provides the Internet access)
 A telephone connection
 A computer
 Modem (external/internal)
 A communication software
Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) will install the following in your computer:
 Telecommunications Software
 A World Wide Web Browser.
 An Email program.
 An FTP Program (optional)
 A Newsgroup Reader
 With all this software installed, you will be ready to access the Internet.
 Your computer will dial a local number, which is provided by your ISP.
 Once you have logged into your ISP, you are connected to the Internet.
 There are two classes of computers on the Internet, HOSTS and CLIENTS.
 Unless you have a permanent link to the Internet and your machine is always connected
and on-line, then you are probably a client and not a host.
2. Direct Connection
 You can also get a direct connection to your ISP, where you have a fixed cable or a
dedicated phone line to the ISP. Often the dedicated line is an ISDN (Integrated Services
Digital Network) line that is a higher speed version of the standard phone line.
Applications and Services on the Internet
 The Internet is actually very boring since it is nothing more than hardware connections.
 It is the Internet applications and services that make the Internet come alive.
 Internet applications include World Wide Web (WWW), Electronic mail, File transfer,
Telnet, Discussion Groups, Internet Relay Chat, Search Services etc.
1. World Wide Web
 The Web is an Internet-based computer network that allows users on one computer to
access information stored on another through the worldwide network.
 The WWW is an Internet service that provides a network of interactive documents and the
software to access them. It is based on documents called web pages that combine text,
pictures, forms, sound, animation and hypertext links called hyperlinks.
 To navigate the WWW, users “Surf” from one page to another by pointing and clicking on
the hyperlinks in text or graphics.
2. EMAIL is the ability to write a message to someone, using a mail program, and use the
Internet as a means of delivering that message.
 Email (Electronic mail) refers to a computer-based system allowing two or more people to
communicate through the transmission of character coded or graphic information by
electronic means.
 A typical electronic mail system requires:
 Personal Computer/workstation (through which messages are created, edited, and
displayed);
 Communication software (which make electronic mail possible);
 Telephone line (which links the sending and receiving computers);
 Modem (to provide the communications link), and
 Account: e-mail address and password (Mail box address and mail box ownership)
 The standard protocol used for sending Internet e-mail is called SMTP(Simple Mail
Transfer Protocol). It works in conjunction with POP(Post Office Protocol) servers.
3. Telnet
• Telnet is a program that allows you to log into computers on the Internet and use online
databases, library catalogs, chat services, and more. To Telnet to a computer, you must
know its address.
• This can consist of words (locis.loc.gov) or numbers (140.147.254.3).
4. FTP
 FTP stands for File Transfer Protocol. This is both a program and the method used to
transfer files between computers. Anonymous FTP is an option that allows users to transfer
files from thousands of host computers on the Internet to their personal computer account.
 FTP sites contain books, articles, software, games, images, sounds, multimedia, course
work, data sets, and more.
Internet Protocols
 Internet protocols are sets of rules that allow for inter-machine communication on the
Internet.
 One of the few requirements of a computer connected to the Internet is that it must speak a
common language (or protocol).
 This protocol, called Transmission Control Protocol /Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), is what
enables small desktop personal computers to converse with huge super-computers across
this complexity of network connections.
Some major protocols accessible on the Internet:
E-mail (Simple Mail Transport Protocol or SMTP) - distributes electronic messages and
files to one or more electronic mailboxes
Telnet (Telnet Protocol) - facilitates login to a computer host to execute
FTP (File Transfer Protocol) - Transfers text or binary files between an FTP server and
client.
Internet addressing
Very similar to the postal address system, Internet addressing is a systematic way to identify
people, computer and the Internet resources.
When a new site is put online it has a specific network address that looks something like
207.70.128.240. In order to make the site easier to remember, a unique name is correlated
with the number.
 IP Address An IP address is a unique number that identifies computers on the
Internet.
 An IP address consists of four numbers separated by periods.
 Each number must be between 0 and 255.
 Domain Name Most computers on the Internet have a domain name.
 A domain name always contains two or more components separated by periods,
called
“dots”.
 Some examples of domain names are : ibm.com, nasa.gov, aau.edu.telecom.net.et.
 Once a domain name has been established, “sub-domains” can be created within
the domain.
 For example, the domain name for a large company could be “vni.com” and
within this domain, sub-domains can be created for each of the company’s
regional offices.
 The top-level portion of a domain name describes the type of organization holding that
name. The major categories for top-level domains are:
 Com – commercial entities
 Edu – educational institutions
 Net – organizations directly involved in the Internet operations, such as network
providers and network information centers.
 Org – miscellaneous organizations that do not fit any other category, such as nonprofit
groups
 Gov – united states federal government entities
 Mil – united states military
 Country codes – a two-letter abbreviation for a particular country for example et for
Ethiopia, uk for united kingdom, or fr for France.
 Each domain name corresponds to numeric IP (Internet Protocol) address.
 Intranets and Extranets
Intranets
• Intranet is an internal network that uses Internet technology. It is basically an
internal internet designed to be used within the confines of the university,
Company, or organization
• Intranets are only logically "internal" to an organization access is limited to a
defined community of interest.
• Intranet is based upon Internet technology, in particular WWW, to build
information systems within organization or enterprise to accomplish
standardization and automation.
Extranets
• An Extranet is a Private network environment designed to allow clients, business
partners, suppliers and other companies with which you do business to access data
and applications inside the organization’s network.