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Lessons from the design of a PC-based private branch exchange

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Abstract

We designed TigerSwitch, a digital private branch exchange (PBX) implemented on an IBM PC-compatible platform, as an experiment in embedded system design. A telephone switching system is an interesting example of embedded system co-design because it combines a rich functionality with deadlines ranging from seconds to tenths of a millisecond. This paper uses design decisions from TigerSwitch to illustrate the difficulties faced in the partitioning and allocation of a system specification into an architecture: the critical performance paths may not be obvious from the initial specification, and it is often difficult to obtain the performance data required to allocate functions in the architecture.

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Wolf, W., Wolfe, A., Chinatti, S. et al. Lessons from the design of a PC-based private branch exchange. Des Autom Embed Syst 1, 297–313 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00209907

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