International Telecommunications Energy Conference Washington - October 1982; Future Trends in Switching

The communications environment is changing more rapidly than ever before. Technical advance within communications systems is only one factor. Almost more important is the advance in electronic and computer-based systems in office and home, which will increasingly demand intercommunication. Although telephony still dominates, switching engineers find themselves facing the need to switch a widening variety of communications. The result is the emergence of proposals for integrated services networks and for new switching techniques to handle them. These and other influences are reviewed speculatively.