Switch on a Telephone Call! See a shocked version of how a telephone call is made with the 5ESS® Switch.

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What is a 5ESS®-2000 Switch? Lucent Technology's digital switch, called the 5ESS®-2000 Switch, allows service providers such as telephone companies to route data, voice and video signals to communicate information. Switching equipment links telephones plus fax machines, computers, and other data systems together on the public switched telephone network, so people can exchange information no matter where they are located. Information can be sent in traditional ways with a person's voice speaking on the telephone, with facsimile transmission to send documents, or through data sent via computer systems, and use of satellites. The Internet's world wide web links global information and sites by travel through electronic switches and their software. The 5ESS®-2000 Digital Switch is designed to allow high speed, reliable network interconnection. The United States public switched telephone network has many switches in major cities, suburban and rural areas that connect telephones to each another. Special switches, called Gateway Switches, are also used to interconnect U.S. telephone and computer traffic with voice, data and similiar communication networks in other countries. How does a switch work to accomplish this? The switch is a large scale, real time, software based system. The switch, itself, works through commands located in the software applications used. Software is the guiding command that makes the switch execute its processes. Software is more than "instructions". Software is the intelligence for switching systems, network transmission, speech synthesis and recognition, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), digital video, wireless sytems, object oriented design, multi-media and many other communication, information, entertainment and service applications. Software makes communication happen. The special software for a communications switch allows the processors to perform their functions as a telephone switch. Each software subsystem is reponsible for providing specific switch functions such as call processing, administration, peripheral controls, routing and termination steps, and a host of other billing and maintenance procedures. With a simple voice call, the software detects when a telephone goes off hook by noting a change in the hardware. The software then coordinates the use of appropriate components to complete the telephone call or transfer the data or send a wireless call.