AXE telephone exchange
Encyclopedia
The AXE telephone exchange is a product line of circuit switched
digital telephone exchange
s manufactured by Ericsson
, a Swedish telecom company. It was developed in 1974 by Ellemtel, a research and development
subsidiary of Ericsson and Televerket
.. The first system was deployed in 1976. AXE is an acronym for Automatic Cross-Connection Equipment.
The AXE is the digital successor to the AKE analogue telephone exchange and ARF/ARM family of crossbar switch
es. The design is modular with an APZ dual processor running in sync mode, an APT switching part and an APG I/O part. It is used for connecting local landline
s, operate mobile networks (TDMA
, GSM, CDMA
, W-CDMA
, PDC
), international telephony traffic and signaling.
AXE based equipment are being used as BSC/TRC, MSC, HLR, SCP, FNR, TSC and wireline nodes.
The brain of the AXE system is a dual processor system called APZ. It runs in parallel sync mode making it fault redundant. The family of APZs started with APZ 210 03 in 1976; the latest one is APZ 212 60. The parallel sync mode was partly abandoned in the APZ 212 40 and subsequent models and has been replaced with a warm standby scheme.
The latest APZ type is 214 01 which is use as MSC and TSC Blade in AXE. The latest implementation of AXE is on a blade cluster system capable of handling up to 8 million subscribers.
The core of the switching part was the Group Switch, initially a time-space-time multiplexer capable of switching up to 64K positions or connections. This Group Switch later evolved to a Distributed Group Switch using Time-Space switching technique with a maximum capacity of 512K.
AXE nodes have evolved as a traffic controller, having the new Media Gateway node running on CPP platform handle the payload traffic.
Ericsson AXE telephone exchanges support lawful intercepts
via the remote-control equipment subsystem (RES), which carries out the tap, and the interception management system (IMS), software used for initiating the tap, which adds the tap to the RES database. In a fully operating lawful interception system the RES and IMS both create logs of all numbers being tapped so that system administrators can perform audits to find unauthorized taps.
Code is written in PLEX
(a proprietary language tied to the AXE hardware, designed by Göran Hemdahl), SDL
and ASA210C programming languages. Code for Regional Processors (controlling hardware Extension Modules) is written in ASA210R.
Circuit switching
Circuit switching is a methodology of implementing a telecommunications network in which two network nodes establish a dedicated communications channel through the network before the nodes may communicate. The circuit guarantees the full bandwidth of the channel and remains connected for the...
digital telephone exchange
Telephone exchange
In the field of telecommunications, a telephone exchange or telephone switch is a system of electronic components that connects telephone calls...
s manufactured by Ericsson
Ericsson
Ericsson , one of Sweden's largest companies, is a provider of telecommunication and data communication systems, and related services, covering a range of technologies, including especially mobile networks...
, a Swedish telecom company. It was developed in 1974 by Ellemtel, a research and development
Research and development
The phrase research and development , according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, refers to "creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use of this stock of...
subsidiary of Ericsson and Televerket
Televerket (Sweden)
Televerket was the public utility company responsible for telecommunications in Sweden between 1953-1993; however, it originated 100 years earlier....
.. The first system was deployed in 1976. AXE is an acronym for Automatic Cross-Connection Equipment.
The AXE is the digital successor to the AKE analogue telephone exchange and ARF/ARM family of crossbar switch
Crossbar switch
In electronics, a crossbar switch is a switch connecting multiple inputs to multiple outputs in a matrix manner....
es. The design is modular with an APZ dual processor running in sync mode, an APT switching part and an APG I/O part. It is used for connecting local landline
Landline
A landline was originally an overland telegraph wire, as opposed to an undersea cable. Currently, landline refers to a telephone line which travels through a solid medium, either metal wire or optical fibre, as distinguished from a mobile cellular line, where transmission is via radio waves...
s, operate mobile networks (TDMA
Digital AMPS
IS-54 and IS-136 are second-generation mobile phone systems, known as Digital AMPS . It was once prevalent throughout the Americas, particularly in the United States and Canada. D-AMPS is considered end-of-life, and existing networks have mostly been replaced by GSM/GPRS or CDMA2000...
, GSM, CDMA
Code division multiple access
Code division multiple access is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. It should not be confused with the mobile phone standards called cdmaOne, CDMA2000 and WCDMA , which are often referred to as simply CDMA, and use CDMA as an underlying channel access...
, W-CDMA
W-CDMA
W-CDMA , UMTS-FDD, UTRA-FDD, or IMT-2000 CDMA Direct Spread is an air interface standard found in 3G mobile telecommunications networks. It is the basis of Japan's NTT DoCoMo's FOMA service and the most-commonly used member of the UMTS family and sometimes used as a synonym for UMTS...
, PDC
Personal Digital Cellular
Personal Digital Cellular is a 2G mobile telecommunications standard developed and used exclusively in Japan.After a peak of nearly 80 million subscribers to PDC, it had 46 million subscribers in December 2005, and is slowly being phased out in favor of 3G technologies like W-CDMA and CDMA2000...
), international telephony traffic and signaling.
AXE based equipment are being used as BSC/TRC, MSC, HLR, SCP, FNR, TSC and wireline nodes.
The brain of the AXE system is a dual processor system called APZ. It runs in parallel sync mode making it fault redundant. The family of APZs started with APZ 210 03 in 1976; the latest one is APZ 212 60. The parallel sync mode was partly abandoned in the APZ 212 40 and subsequent models and has been replaced with a warm standby scheme.
The latest APZ type is 214 01 which is use as MSC and TSC Blade in AXE. The latest implementation of AXE is on a blade cluster system capable of handling up to 8 million subscribers.
The core of the switching part was the Group Switch, initially a time-space-time multiplexer capable of switching up to 64K positions or connections. This Group Switch later evolved to a Distributed Group Switch using Time-Space switching technique with a maximum capacity of 512K.
AXE nodes have evolved as a traffic controller, having the new Media Gateway node running on CPP platform handle the payload traffic.
Ericsson AXE telephone exchanges support lawful intercepts
Lawful interception
Lawful interception is obtaining communications network data pursuant to lawful authority for the purpose of analysis or evidence. Such data generally consist of signalling or network management information or, in fewer instances, the content of the communications...
via the remote-control equipment subsystem (RES), which carries out the tap, and the interception management system (IMS), software used for initiating the tap, which adds the tap to the RES database. In a fully operating lawful interception system the RES and IMS both create logs of all numbers being tapped so that system administrators can perform audits to find unauthorized taps.
Code is written in PLEX
PLEX (programming language)
PLEX is a special-purpose, pseudo-parallel and event-driven real-time programming language. Dedicated for AXE telephone exchanges, it was developed by Göran Hemdahl at Ericsson. Originally designed in the 1970s, it has been continuously evolving since then...
(a proprietary language tied to the AXE hardware, designed by Göran Hemdahl), SDL
Specification and Description Language
Specification and Description Language is a specification language targeted at the unambiguous specification and description of the behaviour of reactive and distributed systems.- Overview :It is defined by the ITU-T...
and ASA210C programming languages. Code for Regional Processors (controlling hardware Extension Modules) is written in ASA210R.