Switching Network Planning

This talk covers the planning issues related to local and toll switching the switching planning tools used by AT&T Bell laboratories to conduct switching planning studies for international clients, and an example of a local switching planning study conducted by us. The planning issues touch on life cycle economics, economy of scale, consolidation economics, synergy between switching and transmission systems, and the trade offs involved in the use of remote vehicles. Two planning tools, OWL (Optimun Wire-center Location) and SNEP (Switching Network Evolution Planning) are briefly described. The descriptions are limited to their applications and features. The study is a local switching study conducted for a metropolitan network.