UNIT VI

SIGNALLING

PCM signalling
In PCM systems, signalling and speech are sampled, coded and transmitted within the frame of PCM channels. Thus, with PCM, a convenient way of transmission is possible. The signalling information and speech information carried in the same time slot is referred as inslot signalling. The signalling information carried in a separate time slot is referred as outslot signalling. Telephone channels are combined by time division multiplexing to form an assmebly of 24 or 30 channels. This is known as primary multiplex group. Two frame structures are widely used in practice. They are DS1 24 channel system and European 30 channel system. DS1 24 channel system is popular in North America and Japan.

Figure : (a) 30 channel PCM system (b) Multiframing

30 channel PCM system It is based on 30 speech channels transmitted within a frame of 32 time slots (0 to 31). The total bit rate is 32 8 8 kbits/sec = 2048 kbps. Channel 0 is used for providing the framing signal and channel 16 is used for transmitting the signalling information relating to speech channels 1 to 15 and 17 to 31. The 8 bits of channel 16 are shared between the 30 channels by a process of multiframing. 16 successive appearances of channel 16 form a multiframe of 8 bit time slots. Frame 0 contains a multiframe alignment signal. Frame 1 to 16 of Fig. (b) contains four bits of signalling infomation for each of 2 channels. This arrangement enables a much larger number of signals to be exchanged.

Interregister signalling
When interexchange signalling takes place between exchanges with common control subsystems, it is called interregister signalling. The main purpose of interregister signalling is the exchange of address digits which pass from exchange to exchange on a link-by-link basis. Network-wide signalling also involves end-to-end signalling between the originating exchange and the terminating exchange. Such a form of signalling is called line signalling.

In en-bloc signalling , the complete address information is transferred from one register to the next as a single strings of digits. Thus , no signal is sent out until the complete address information has been received.
In overlap signalling, digits are sent out as soon as possible. Thus, some digits may be sent before the complete address has been received and signalling may take place simultaneously on two links (i.e. the signals overlap).

LINK-BY-LINK VERSUS END-TO-END SIGNALING

An important factor to be considered in switching system design that directly affects both signaling and customer satisfaction is post-dialing delay. This is the amount of time it takes after the calling subscriber completes dialing until

ring-back is received.
Ring-back is a backward signal to the calling subscriber indicating that the dialed number is ringing. Post-dialing delay must be made as short as possible.

Another important consideration is register occupancy time for call setup as the setup proceeds from originating exchange to terminating exchange.
Call-setup equipment, that equipment used to establish a speech path through a switch and to select the proper outgoing trunk, is expensive.

By reducing register occupancy per call, we may be able to reduce the number of registers (and markers) per switch, thus saving money.
Link-by-link and end-to-end signaling each affect register occupancy and post-dialing delay, each differently.

Common Channel Signalling (CCS)

The CCS netwoek is basically a store and forward (S & F) network where signalling information trvels on a link-by-link basis along the route. When the signalling information is received at node, it is stored, processed and forwarded to the next node in the route. In CCS signalling information is transferred as messages of varying length usually defined as one or more fixed length signalling units (SUs). A message of one signal unit length is called single unit message (SUM) and the one with multiple signal units as multiunit message (MUM). A signal unit is divided into a number of constituent bit fields each having its own function. Typical structures of a SUM and a MUM are shown in figure below.

Figure :Typical CCS signaling message formats

 The format of the first SU of a MUM is identical to a SUM.

In SS6 , each SU is of size 28 bits of which the last eight bits are check bits. In SUM , 5,4 and 11 bits are allocated for header, signalling information and circuit label respectively. In MUM the SUs subsequent to the first SU, have 2, 2 and 16 bits for subheader, length field and additional signalling information respectively. Routing details, address digits etc., form additional signalling information. Each address digit is four bits long. A signalling message unit may be an address unit, centralised service message unit , acknowledgment unit, synchronisation or idle unit, or management message unit.

Figure : Formats of signalling units

Figure : Formats of signalling units