Switching Technologies for Tomorrow's Networks

Over the years advances in basic research have produced significant technologies which give designers of telecommunications systems many challenging opportunities for evolution of products and services. We will examine life cycle trends in several strategic technologies such as microelectronics, photonics, and software. Then we will look at a vision of the telecommunications networks of tomorrow. Since the principal control and intelligence in these networks are provided by the switching systems at the nodes, we will then discuss the challenge of applying new technology to employment switching system evolution which is both economical and versatile.