Path selection circuit for an end marked network

Claim 2

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side and a trunk side, a plurality of appearances on each of said sides, a plurality of line side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said line side, a plurality of trunk side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said trunk side, each of said circuits having operable means for applying a marking potential to its network appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, control means in said network responsive to the application of a marking potential to an appearance on each of said network''s two sides for establishing a network path between the two marked appearances, and selection means including said control means for causing said network to establish a preselected one path out of a plurality of possible paths between any preselected one of its line side appearances and any preselected one of its trunk side appearances in response to the application of a marking potential to said preselected appearances.

Claim 3

The system of claim 1 in which said selection means comprises, normally operable scanner means for scanning said network paths one at a time, means responsive to the scanning of a path for selecting it for use on a connection if said path comprises a possible interconnection path between a currently marked line side appearance and a currently marked trunk side appearance, selectively controllable means responsive to the marking of said preselected line side appearance and said preselected trunk side appearance for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning signal only to said preselected path to select it for use on said connection, and means responsive to said selection for causing said network to complete a connection between said preselected appearances over said preselected path.

Claim 4

The system of claim 2 in combination with means responsive to the completion of said selected path for enabling said scanner so that it resumes the scanning of said paths for the serving of subsequently received connection requests.

Claim 5

In a switching system, an end marked network having line side modules and trunk side modules, a plurality of appearances on each of said modules, a plurality of line side circuits each of which is connected to a different one of said apPearances on said line side modules, a plurality of trunk side circuits each of which is connected to a different one of said appearances on said trunk side modules, a primary and a secondary switching stage in each of said modules, links connecting the two stages within each module, a plurality of junctors interconnecting said line side and trunk side modules, each of said circuits having means for applying a marking potential to its appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, control means in said network responsive to the application of a marking potential to an appearance on both a line side and a trunk side module for establishing a path through said modules and over any one of said junctors between the two marked appearances, and selection means including said control means for causing said network to establish a connection over a preselected one of said junctors between any preselected one of its line side module appearances and any preselected one of its trunk side module appearances in response to the application of a marking potential to said preselected appearances.

Claim 6

In a switching system, an end marked network having line side modules and trunk side modules, a plurality of appearances on each of said modules, a plurality of line side circuits each of which is connected to a different one of said apPearances on said line side modules, a plurality of trunk side circuits each of which is connected to a different one of said appearances on said trunk side modules, a primary and a secondary switching stage in each of said modules, links connecting the two stages within each module, a plurality of junctors interconnecting said line side and trunk side modules, each of said circuits having means for applying a marking potential to its appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, control means in said network responsive to the application of a marking potential to an appearance on both a line side and a trunk side module for establishing a path through said modules and over any one of said junctors between the two marked appearances, and selection means including said control means for causing said network to establish a connection over a preselected one of said junctors between any preselected one of its line side module appearances and any preselected one of its trunk side module appearances in response to the application of a marking potential to said preselected appearances.

Claim 7

The system of claim 4 in which said selection means comprises, normally operable scanner means for scanning said junctors one at a time, means responsive to the scanning of a junctor for selecting it for use on a connection if said junctor comprises an available path between a currently marked line side appearance and a currently marked trunk side appearance, selectively controllable means responsive to the marking of said preselected line side and preselected trunk side appearances for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning signal to said preselected junctor to select it for use on said connection, and means responsive to said selection for causing said network to complete a connection between said preselected appearances over said preselected junctor.

Claim 8

The system of claim 5 in combination with means responsive to the completion of said path for re-enabling said scanner so that it resumes the scanning of said junctors.

Claim 9

The system of claim 6 in which said means for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning signal to said selected junctor comprises, scanning conductors, output conductors on said scanner means, a first set of normally enabled gates interconnecting said output conductors and said scanning conductors, a plurality of controllable switch means each of which is individual to one of said scanning conductors, a second set of normally inhibited gates interconnecting said switch means and said scanning conductors, said first set of gates being normally effective for applying scanning signals on said output conductors to said scanning conductors, said second set of gates being normally effective for blocking output signals of said switch means from said scanning conductors, said switch means being settable to specify the scanning of said selected junctor, means for interconnecting control inputs of all of said gates with the network appearance of said preselected line side circuit, means responsive to the application of a marking potential to said preselected line side appearance to alter the conductive state of all of said gates so that said scanner output signals are blocked from said scanning conductors and so that signals from said switches are applied to said scanning conductors to effect the scan of said preselected junctor, and means for switching the conductive state of both set of gates back to their normal condition upon the establishment of said network connection.

Claim 10

The system of claim 7 in combination with a selection switch having a normal and operated state in each of said trunk side circuits, and means effective when the selection switch of said preselected trunk side circuit is operated for extending a network connection over said preselected junctor from the marked appearance of said preselected line side circuit to said preselected trunk side circuit.

Claim 11

The system of claim 8 in combination with a test and control circuit, means for connecting supervisory output signals from said preselected line side circuit to an input of said test and control circuit, selection conductors extending from said test and control circuit to said trunk side circuits, test switch means in said test and control circuit for rendering said selection conductors inactive, and means effective when said test switch means is operated and a selection switch of a preselected trunk side circuit is operated for selecting said preselected trunk side circuit for use on said connection in response to supervisory signals generated by said preselected line side circuit.

Claim 12

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage and a trunk side stage, a plurality of appearances on each of said stages, a plurality of line side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said line side stage, a plurality of trunk side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said trunk side stage, a plurality of junctors interconnecting each of said stages, each of said circuits having means for applying a marking potential to its appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, control means in said network responsive to the application of marking potential to an appearance on both of said stages for establishing a network path through said stages and over any one of said junctors between the two marked appearances, and selection means including said control means for causing said network to establish a path over a preselected one of said junctors between any preselected one of its line side appearances and any preselected one of its trunk side appearances in response to the application of a marking potential to said preselected appearance.

Claim 13

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage and a trunk side stage, a plurality of appearances on each of said stages, a plurality of line side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said line side stage, a plurality of trunk side circuits each of which is connected to a different appearance on said trunk side stage, a plurality of junctors interconnecting each of said stages, each of said circuits having means for applying a marking potential to its appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, control means in said network responsive to the application of marking potential to an appearance on both of said stages for establishing a network path through said stages and over any one of said junctors between the two marked appearances, and selection means including said control means for causing said network to establish a path over a preselected one of said junctors between any preselected one of its line side appearances and any preselected one of its trunk side appearances in response to the application of a marking potential to said preselected appearance.

Claim 14

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage, a trunk side stage, and a plurality of junctors interconnecting said stages, a plurality of line side circuits each connected to a different appearance on said line side stage, a plurality of trunk side circuits each connected to a different appearance on said trunk side stage, each of said line side and trunk side circuits including means for applying a marking potential to its network appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, and control means responsive to the application of marking potential to an appearance on both of said stages for enabling one of said junctors for establishing a network path through said stages and over said one junctor between the two marked appearances, said control means including first means responsive only to the application of the marking potentials to the appearances on both of said stages for applying an enabling potential to any of said junctors and second means including means for preselecting a specific one of said junctors and responsive to the application of the marking potentials to the appearances on both of said stages for applying an enabling potential to the preselected specific one of said junctors.

Claim 15

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage, a trunk side stage, and a plurality of junctors interconnecting said stages, a plurality of line side circuits each connected to a different appearance on said line side stage, a plurality of trunk side circuits each connected to a different appearance on said trunk side stage, each of said line side and trunk side circuits including means for applying a marking potential to its network appearance to request a connection through said network to another one of said circuits, and control means responsive to the application of marking potential to an appearance on both of said stages for enabling one of said junctors for establishing a network path through said stages and over said one junctor between the two marked appearances, said control means including first means responsive only to the application of the marking potentials to the appearances on both of said stages for applying an enabling potential to any of said junctors and second means including means for preselecting a specific one of said junctors and responsive to the application of the marking potentials to the appearances on both of said stages for applying an enabling potential to the preselected specific one of said junctors.

Claim 16

The system of claim 11 in which said control means comprises, scanner means for scanning said junctors one at a time, means responsive to the scanning of a junctor for selecting it for use on a connection if said junctor comprises a possible interconnection path between a currently marked line side appearance and a currently marked trunk side appearance, means responsive to the marking of one of said line side appearances and one of said trunk side appearances for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning signal only to said preselected junctor to select it for use on said connection, and means responsive to said selection for causing said network to complete a connection between said marked appearances over said one junctor.

Claim 17

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage, a trunk side stage, and a plurality of jUnctors interconnecting said stages, means for applying marking potentials to appearances on said line and trunk side stages to request a connection through said network over any available one of said junctors, means responsive to said marking potentials for normally applying an enabling potential to any available one of said junctors to select it for use on said connection, and means for altering the operation of said last-mentioned means including means for preselecting the specific junctor to which an enabling potential is to be applied in response to said marking potentials.

Claim 18

In a switching system, an end marked network having a line side stage, a trunk side stage, and a plurality of jUnctors interconnecting said stages, means for applying marking potentials to appearances on said line and trunk side stages to request a connection through said network over any available one of said junctors, means responsive to said marking potentials for normally applying an enabling potential to any available one of said junctors to select it for use on said connection, and means for altering the operation of said last-mentioned means including means for preselecting the specific junctor to which an enabling potential is to be applied in response to said marking potentials.

Claim 19

A multistage end marked switching network in which connections are established over junctors between a traffic circuit connected to a line side network stage and a traffic circuit connected to a trunk side network stage in response to the application of marking potentials to the network appearance of the circuits to be connected, a scanner for normally scanning said junctors one at a time, said network being responsive to the scanning of a junctor to select said junctor for use on a connection if said junctor comprises part of an available path between two traffic circuits to be interconnected, settable switch means having a position individual to each of said junctors, means for preselecting two circuits between which a network connection is to be established, means responsive to the application of a marking potential by said preselected line side circuit to its network appearance for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning potential to a selected junctor under control of said settable switch means, means responsive to the establishment of a network connection between said preselected circuits over said selected junctor for disabling said switch means and for re-enabling said scanner for the serving of subsequent call connections.

Claim 20

A multistage end marked switching network in which connections are established over junctors between a traffic circuit connected to a line side network stage and a traffic circuit connected to a trunk side network stage in response to the application of marking potentials to the network appearance of the circuits to be connected, a scanner for normally scanning said junctors one at a time, said network being responsive to the scanning of a junctor to select said junctor for use on a connection if said junctor comprises part of an available path between two traffic circuits to be interconnected, settable switch means having a position individual to each of said junctors, means for preselecting two circuits between which a network connection is to be established, means responsive to the application of a marking potential by said preselected line side circuit to its network appearance for temporarily disabling said scanner and for applying a simulated scanning potential to a selected junctor under control of said settable switch means, means responsive to the establishment of a network connection between said preselected circuits over said selected junctor for disabling said switch means and for re-enabling said scanner for the serving of subsequent call connections.

Claim 21

The system of claim 14 in which the means for selecting a trunk side circuit comprises a selection switch having a normal and operated state in each of said trunk side circuits, and means effective when the selection switch of said preselected trunk side circuit is operated for enabling the extension of a network connection over said preselected junctor from the marked appearance of said preselected line side circuit to said preselected trunk side circuit.

Claim 22

The system of claim 15 in combination with a test and control circuit, means for connecting supervisory output signals from said preselected line side circuit to an input of said test and control circuit, selection conductors extending from said test and control circuit to said trunk side circuits, test switch means in said test and control circuit for rendering said selection conductors inactive, and means effective when said test switch means is operated and a selection switch of a preselected trunk side circuit is operated for selecting said preselected trunk side circuit for use on said connection in response to supervisory signals generated by said preselected line side circuit.