Military Interfaces for a Burst Switch

For experimental field trials of the burst switching concept being developed at GTE Laboratories, both commercial and military interfaces are planned. This paper illustrates the generality of burst switch hardware and software architectures that makes interfacing to two complex military terminations--the SB-3614 Tactical Switchboard and the Digital Nonsecure Voice Terminal (DNVT)--nearly as straightforward as to interfacing an ordinary voice telephone. Brief descriptions of the SB-3614 and the DNVT are given. The elements of distributed control in burst switch networks are described as principal factors in the architecture. The same basic port hardware configuration, now in discrete logic for experimental demonstration, is used for all port types, with only the electrical interfaces differing among them. Port software is written in a switching-oriented language and employs universal command messages for interprocessor communications. Partitioning of the port software into processes common to all interfaces and those unique to a specific interface simplifies software implementation. The architectural approach makes it possible to specify and incorporate future interfaces with relative ease.