Week 1 Exercise
1. Describe a local land line phone system based on the following Landline Telephone Components:
a. Local Loop
The local loop is the physical wiring that connects you to the public switched telephone network (PSTN). This line can be a voice line, or it can be a data line. The physical wiring for the local loop consists of a pair of twisted copper wires that run from the telephone company's central office to the subscriber's premise and another pair of twisted copper wires that run back to the telephone company's Central Office1
b. Central Office
A Central Office is part of the telephone network in your area. It is a building in which the phone lines in your home or office terminate and connect to a much larger switching system. In large metropolitan areas, Central Offices are more appropriately LOs (local offices), because they serve a local area. The term "Central Office" is from the early days of the telephone system when the local telephone company really did have only one central office in each area.1
c. Local Exchanges
A telephone exchange is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises. An exchange consists of electronic components and in older systems also human operators that interconnect (switch) telephone subscriber lines or virtual circuits of digital systems to establish telephone calls between subscribers. Also referred to as the Central office.
d. POP
In the telephone system, the point where either an LEC or a long-distance carrier meets another long-distance carrier is defined as the point of presence (POP). The POP provides the interconnection to the long-distance carrier or interexchange carrier (IXC).
e. Long Distance System
In the United States, long-distance service is provided by an IXC. These carriers are used to connect LECs together in different LATAs and sometimes