The 5ESS-2000 switch: Exceeding customer expectations

The first 5ESS® switch was deployed in 1982 in Seneca, Illinois, initiating the global presence of AT&T digital switching equipment around the world. Today, the 5ESS switch is an integral part of the telecommunication networks in more than 50 countries. From the beginning, the switch was designed to have a flexible and evolvable architecture. And for more than a decade, it has continued to meet varied and ever-changing customer needs. The 5ESS-2000 platform is one of the switch's most recent and significant evolutions. This platform not only supports today's service needs, it also accommodates future applications requiring enhanced processing capacity, performance, reliability, and OAM&P (operations, administration, maintenance, and provisioning). This paper outlines the switch's current state of refinement, including its architecture and quality improvements. Hardware and software enhancements are discussed, as is the system integration and verification philosophy used in reducing the product-realization interval. The paper also reports on quality and performance data from customer field applications that have deployed the 5ESS-2000 platform.