5ESS®-2000 switch: The next generation switching system

One of the most important trends in telecommunications is the opportunity to exploit the vastly increased bandwidth that fiber optics makes available. Fiber, together with Synchronous Digital Hierarchy/Synchronous Optical Network transmission, will alter network topologies and necessitate new methods of bandwidth management. The 5ESS-2000® Switching Module-2000 makes the most of this bandwidth by providing both multi-megabit data switching and a high-bandwidth, intraswitch message network to interconnect SM-2000s. The SM-2000 hardware: — Implements a duplex switching fabric that can be engineered to 33,792 time slots, — Supports optical and electrical links to peripheral interface units, — Provides wideband circuit switching of multiple 64 kbits/s data streams as one stream, — Supports increased SM-2000 processor capacity, enhanced significantly through processor technology upgrades and wider-bandwidth busses, and — Supports substantially increased message protocol-handling capabilities. While continuing to support traditional switching applications, the 5ESS-2000 Switch will make possible a host of new wideband services. These include video conferencing, high-speed data transfer, and integrated switched and non-switched networking.