Digital Switching--Forces Which Shape Its Future

While the theories relevant to digital communication switching have been understood for some time, it is only now economically feasible to place a digital switch into an analog environment. This permits the transition from an analog-oriented communications world into a digitally oriented communications world without the need for costly interfaces or for the building of special overlay networks. This paper first examines the current state of the relevant technologies. It then examines the ways in which these technologies will interact with the existing networks, the terminals to those existing networks and economic forces. It is shown that we can expect an evolution of the world wide communications networks; the terminals of those networks and the digital switching machines at the heart of those networks-all in consort. It is concluded that the real opportunity presented by the advent and evolution of digital switching technology is that of almost unimaginable flexibility in networking and end-user features. Digital switching is indeed the keystone to a telecommunications revolution and the attendant marriage of computing with communications.