A system architecture for the 21st century telecommunications network

A view of the telecommunications network as a system and the application of system architecture to planning its evolution are proposed. The long-term goal is to provide a target architecture for the various efforts in network access, switching, interoffice transport, and operations. Many efforts already underway will be integrated through such an architecture: integrated services digital network (ISDN), broadband ISDN, intelligent network (IN, IN/2), new network elements (e.g. the next generation switch), and operations elements and architectures. A preliminary system architecture framework and an illustrative example are presented