EFFICIENT MULTIPLEXING OF VOICE AND DATA IN INTEGRATED DIGITAL NETWORKS.

The development of digital communications systems which can accommodate voice and data traffic in an integrated manner is a subject of current interest and activity. Some basic issues and tradeoffs are described in the statistical multiplexing of voice and data in common digital links, with particular attention to the statistical properties of voice traffic and to the effectiveness of various proposed techniques for integrating voice and data in a bandwidth efficient manner. Techniques for the efficient multiplexing of voice and data in a variety of system configurations, including demand-assigned broadcast satellite networks, multi-mode terrestrial topologies, and distributed-control local networks, are discussed. Communication strategies considered include packet techniques for both voice and data, and hybrid methods which employ TDMA-based circuit-switching for voice and packet-switching for data. Special attention is directed to the exploitation of the silence periods in voice conversation and to the effect of variable voice transmission rates.