Multipurpose Wide-Band Local Distribution--Proposals for an Integrated System

Current studies are being undertaken by the United Kingdom Post Office to exploit more fully, in the shorter term future, and to rationalize, in the longer term, the local system of telecommunications distribution in the United Kingdom in order to offer a wider range of services to the customer. One proposal for a future integrated system utilizes a single wide-band medium to provide, in a cabinet area, groups of topological ring distribution highways on which all local traffic is assembled and switched. A laboratory model has successfully demonstrated engineering feasibility. Further studies are currently aimed at the determination of a viable technological progression toward an ultimately fully comprehensive telecommunition service.