No. 1 ESS ADF: System Organization and Objectives

A new store and forward message switching system has been designed and is now serving a nationwide network for the Long Lines Department of the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. It handles administrative traffic, time and payroll reports, circuit order layout records, and plant service results records. The new system is called ADNet, for Administrative and D a t a Network. This is the first of eight articles reporting on the new system, which uses single and multistation lines for transmitting teletypewriter and data messages. The lines are supervised by an electronic message switcher which polls the stations, receives their messages and queues them for delivery to one or more destinations. The switcher is designed around the No. 1 ESS processor 1 supplemented by new peripheral units for assembling, storing, and transferring data characters. It is called No. 1 ESS -- Arranged with D a t a Features: No. 1 ESS ADF. Its capacity and reliability exceed t h a t of other known electronic message switchers. In today's business world there is a growing need for rapid and economical delivery of data and printed copy, for simultaneous transmittal to several destinations, and assurance of delivery. Store and forward techniques allow messages for a given destination to be queued 2733