SWITCHING TO THE FUTURE OF RANGE COMMUNICATIONS AT EDWARDS AFB
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Proceedings from the International Telemetering Conference are made available by the International Foundation for Telemetering and the University of Arizona Libraries. Visit http://www.telemetry.org/index.php/contact-us if you have questions about items in this collection.Abstract
The Edwards Digital Switch (EDS) provides mission critical voice and time-spaceposition information (TSPI) communication switching capability to the Edwards Test Range. The present system has been in operation for about 10 years. The core of this system is based on widely used commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) time-slot interchange switches that were designed for a 40-year service life. The application layers of the system, comprising the command/control elements and the communications and user interfaces, were custom developed by the prime contractor to satisfy the performance requirements of the Air Force Flight Test Center (AFFTC). Problems with the current system include difficulty in obtaining replacement items for equipment developed by the prime contractor and higher than expected failure rates for this equipment. Based on experience, the service life for the equipment developed by the prime contractor appears to be about 15 years. Another problem is that lower cost packet switches are taking market share from the more traditional time-slot interchange switches. This factor tends to accelerate the obsolescence of the existing COTS equipment. Solutions are being investigated to update or replace the EDS. One solution is to reuse the existing COTS core equipment and replace the present application layers, preferably with COTS. Another solution is to replace the entire system with COTS or vendormodified COTS hardware and software.Sponsors
International Foundation for TelemeteringISSN
0884-51230074-9079
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ASSESSMENT OF PHOTONIC SWITCHES AS FUTURE REPLACEMENT FOR ELECTRONIC CROSS-CONNECT SWITCHES(International Foundation for Telemetering, 1999-10)This paper presents the future of optical networking via photonic switches as a potential replacement for the existing electronic cross-connects. Although optical amplifiers are now mainstream and wave division multiplexing (WDM) systems are a commercial reality, the industry’s long-term vision is one of the all-optical network. This will require optical switching equipment such as all-optical or “photonic” cross-connect switches that will provide packet switching at an optical layer. Currently, as voice calls or data traffic are routed throughout Range and commercial networks, the information can travel through many fiber-optic segments which are linked together using electronic cross-connects. However, this electronic portion of the network is the bottleneck that is preventing the ideal network from achieving optimal speeds. Information is converted from light into an electronic signal, routed to the next circuit pathway, then converted back into light as it travels to the next network destination. In an all-optical network, the electronics are removed from the equation, eliminating the need to convert the signals and thereby significantly improving network performance and throughput. Removing the electronics improves network reliability and restoration speeds in the event of an outage, provides greater flexibility in network provisioning, and provides a smooth transition when migrating to future optical transmission technologies. Despite the fact that photonic switching remains uncommercialized, it now seems apparent that the core switches in both the public networks and DoD Range networks of the early 21st century will probably carry ATM cells over a photonic switching fabric.
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Software Considerations in the Control of Digital Communications Switching Systems(International Foundation for Telemetering, 1992-10)Today's complex implementations of integrated packet and circuit switched digital communications networks demand that the software used for controlling these systems be robust, fault tolerant, and capable of runtime recovery from all but the most severe of operational errors. The typical modern switched communications system includes the use of multiple circuit switches, each with potentially thousands of end-user interfaces. Further, these switches are often inter-connected to each other via high-capacity trunks. A single connection between two end-user interfaces often traverses a number of intermediate circuit switches in order to effect the end-to-end communications desired. In this complex, distributed environment, the establishment and dissolution of end-to-end user connections involve far more than simple binary connection states indicating the existence, or non-existence, of a link. More commonly, a single end-to-end connection requires multiple node links across multiple, heterogeneous interfaces. The command and control software used to establish, monitor, and dissolve these connections must be capable of dealing with errors which arise at any node along the way in a consistent and reliable manner. Most critically, the system software must be capable of maintaining an accurate, multi-level mapping of distributed resources' availability, allocation, and status. Further, the software must have the capability of "healing itself" during operational run-time when it can, and of accurately reporting the nature of inconsistencies caused by anomalous events that cannot be fixed on the fly. The Edwards Digital Switch (EDS), developed by CSTI, provides a case study of possible solutions, and potential pitfalls, that can arise in the design, development, and implementation of the controlling software in today's dynamic, distributed communications' system architectures.
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Religious Switching Among Latinos: The Congregational Context(The University of Arizona., 2014)This dissertation explores the factors associated with religious switching among Latinos in Chicago churches. In the last few decades, some scholars have suggested that there is a growing trend among Latinos away from Catholicism and toward conservative Protestantism. Drawing on insights from previous literature on religious conversion more broadly, and from literature on ethnic and immigrant congregations, I examine the possibility that the way a church meets the various needs of congregants is associated with religious switching. More specifically, I explore whether having one's social, spiritual, and material needs met through one's congregation is associated with switching from participation in a Catholic church to participation in a Protestant church. To explore these potential associations, I use data from the Chicago Latino Congregations Study (CLCS), a multilevel study of predominantly Latino congregations in Chicago and the churchgoers who attend them. Using multilevel modeling, I examine both individual congregant-level factors and congregation-level factors, including characteristics of church leaders, and their association with religious switching. The results of this analysis suggest the importance of examining whether or not congregations have formalized ways of incorporating new members into the church, and whether or not the church leader is directly involved with helping congregants meet material needs such as finding a job. Also, results demonstrate that these two factors are more commonly found in evangelical and Pentecostal Protestant churches in Chicago than in Catholic churches. I propose that when congregations employ methods of reaching out to potential new members in personal, individualized ways—such as a church leader directly helping a potential new member with finding a job—affective ties are established and nurtured, setting the ground work for religious switching.
