OBJECT-ORIENTED SWITCHING SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY

Public switching systems are intensively real-time and multi-processing, very large, long-lived, and frequently modified. Programs that control switching systems are therefore required not only to have run-time efficiency but also to be easy to maintain and extend; This paper proposes a Concurrent Object Model and an Object-Oriented Switching Program Structure. The Concurrent Object Model ensures simple and efficient real-time multi-processing. This model allows logical switching components to be implemented as "objects" in software, and the structure of the program coincides with the structure of the logical model. The program structure proposed here uses distributed call processing, which allows building-block-structured switching systems. A prototype switching program proved the effectiveness of this approach and showed that the static and dynamic overheads are within the capacity of present VLSI technology.