Software technology for a distributed telecommunication system

Abstract

Influenced by the progress in the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and in high performance RISC processors, the development in telecommunications is recently moving towards distributed message based switching systems. The contribution describes the software technology required for a distributed telecommunication system which is currently being developed under Siemens' Vision O•N•E strategy (Optimized Network Evolution). The key elements of this technology are:

• Visible and efficient design units with standardized standalone interfaces which reduce development cost and time.

• Loosely coupled communication mechanisms so that changes in switch architecture or hardware technology and system upgrades can be performed without disturbing the system.

• A more reliable execution environment that restricts the consequences of software errors to small recoverable units thereby making the switching system more fault tolerant.