New Developments in Military Switching

Some years ago, following examination of the effectiveness of communication techniques and facilities employed in prosecuting World War II, plans were formulated for a new communication network for a military theater of operation. These plans comprise not only a number of new facilities, such as new carrier and radio systems now available and described elsewhere,* but also a general switching plan for a military theater together with means for its implementation. It is with these switching arrangements that this article is concerned. * Bell Laboratories Record: G. Rodwin and G. H. Huber, New Military Carrier Telephone System, pp. 27-1-275, July, 1955; G. II. Huber, A Military Communication Network Using Wire and Radio, pp. 290-293, Aug. 1955; A. L. Durkee, New Military V H F - U H F Radio Set, pp. 382-384, Oct., 1955; and W. G. Hensel and Reinschmidt, AN/TRC-24 Radio Transmitter, pp. 428-431, Nov., 1955. 375 37G T H E B E L L SYSTEM T E C H N I C A L J O U R N A L , MARCH 1 9 5 8 The problems involved in military switching, where mobility and adaptability are prerequisite, differ radically from those encountered in a commercial system. In a commercial system both central offices and stations remain comparatively fixed, thus permitting the use of a pre-engineered numbering pattern. A study of these problems and of available art indicated that automatic switching for a military theater would be difficult to realize at this time. Accordingly, development work was initiated 011 a manual switching system of advanced design which would to a considerable extent mechanize former manual procedures and provide many of the benefits of the automatic switching.