Communications Switching Architectures for Integrated Services Applications

The integration of voice, data, image and text services is a well-established trend in communications switching systems. Recently, small switches supporting integrated services have become available for applications in departments. This allows the advanced functional capabilities in portions of large organizations without replacement of the entire large switching system. An architecture optimized for smaller installations and readily adaptable to military use is described. The critical requirements of bandwidth management, non-blocking, voice and data traffic capacities, and voice store and forward are considered. Compatibility with current and evolving commercial and military networks and ISDN are discussed. Finally, strong consideration is given to ergonomics and user interface.