Table of Contents

Introduction

Introduction to Tables for Traffic Management and Design

BASIC Programs for Traffic Calculation

A First Course in Telephone Traffic Engineering
1. Traffic Handling Systems, Basic assumptions
2. The Binomial and Poisson Distributions. Lost Calls Held
3. Erlang B and Related Topics. Lost Calls Cleared
4. Erlang C and Queuing. Lost Calls Delayed
5. Pricing Telephone Facilities
6. Design of Single-Node Single-Group Nets
7. Design of Single-Node Multi-Group Networks
8. Introduction To Multi-Node Networks
9. Epilogue, Appendix

Tackling the Non-Blocking Issue

Calls, Attempts and Completions

AOLfolks At Home

Introductions and Prefaces

Chapter 1: Switching System Organization

Chapter 2: Data Processing Functions in Telecommunications

Chapter 3: Interfacing Subscriber Lines

Chapter 4: Interfacing Trunks

Chapter 5: User Oriented Features

Chapter 6: Position Systems for Telephonists

Chapter 7: Physical Design

Chapter 8: Operational, Administration and Maintenance

Answers to Review Questions

Abbreviations and Acronyms

2005 Introduction

Detailed Table of Contents

Overview

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Interaction Between Transmission and Switching

Chapter 3: Fundamentals Of Speech Transmission

Chapter 4: The Development Of Switching

Chapter 5: An Idealized All-Digital Communications Network

Chapter 6: The Stored Program Controlled (SPC) Network

Chapter 7: Levels In The Switched Digital Network

Chapter 8: All Those Other Networks

Chapter 9: Some Possible Shortcuts To The Digital Future

2006 Introduction

The PBX: What It Is, How It Works
1. The PBX and Its Competitors
2. How a PBX Works
3. The User Interface
4. System Control
5. The Switching Matrix; Conclusion

Preparing a PBX Request for Proposal (RFP)
1. What is an RFP?
2. Information an RFP Must Convey
3. Contents of the Sample RFP
4. Sample Request for Proposal

Introduction

PART I: THE WAY THINGS WERE

Chapter 1: Searching for the Telephone Company

Chapter 2: Unscrewing the Inscrutable: Some Communication Jargon

PART II: REQUESTS FOR PROPOSALS, FEATURES AND RELATED TOPICS

Chapter 3: Voice Communication in Business

Chapter 4: Some Correspondence

Chapter 5: Business Communication Is Different

PART III: PROPOSALS AND IMPLEMENTATION

Chapter 6: Planning & Installing a Business Communication System:
A Case Study

Chapter 7: CO Switching: Is It a CU Rip-Off?

Chapter 8: Those Awful PBX Proposals

Chapter 9: Those Awful PBX Proposals: System Descriptions

Chapter 10: Those Awful PBX Proposals: System & Console Features

Chapter 11: Those Awful PBX Proposals: Station & Maintenance Features

Chapter 12: Those Awful PBX Proposals: They’re Even Worse Than You Said!

PART IV: TOYS, ADD-ONS & MISCELLANEOUS

Chapter 13: Restrictors, Recorders & Routers-Built-In or Add On?

Chapter 14: Do-It-Yourself Programming for Call Detail Recorders

Chapter 15: Tutorial on Two Toys

Chapter 16: Some Odds & Ends

PART V: ON TO THE DIGITAL FUTURE

Chapter 17: Sometimes It's Better the Second Time Around

Chapter 18: The Digital Future of the Telephone Network

Chapter 19: Telecommunication Technology of the Futures

Chapter 20: A Requiem for Step

Chapter 21: Innovation, Competition and Interconnection
Epilogue

A. PBXs In General
1. Trends in PBX Design (1981)
2. Ten Common Misconceptions about Centrex (1986)
3. Small PBXs - Equal Opportunity for the Small Office? (1986)
4. The Power of 1A2 (1987)
5. Comparing PBXs for Voice-Data Integraton (1988)
6. Can Your PBX Switch TV? (1990)
7. Buck Rodgers in the 19th Century (1988)
8. The PBX and Downstream Dollars (1989)
9. They've Got Your Number (1993)
10. Others Have Your Number, Too (1993)

B. PBX Product Reviews
1. A Brilliant New Star (1988)
2. IBM Swallows Rolm (1988)
3. Does Rolm Have It Right Even Yet? (1989)
4. The Second Coming (1989)
5. Gee! No...G3 (1992)
6. The Hitachi HCX550 (1989)
7. Intecom's Telari (1989)
8. The Mitel SX-2000 PBX (1992)
9. Mitel's SX-200 Digital and SX-50 PBXs (1993)
10. If You Can't Lick 'Em... (1994)
11. A Voice From the Past (2002)

C. The Breakup of AT&T
1. Have I Got a Deal for You! (1987)
2. Let's Get It In Writing (1991)
3. The Victory of Bill McGowan (1992)
4. Ten Years Later (1994)

D. Other Business And Residential Comm Systems
1. Thoughts on Voice Mail (1985)
2. From Bad to Voice (1990)
3. Office of the Future (1990)
4. Will HDTV be the ISDN of the 90s? (1991)
5. TV for NJ (1977)
6. Selling off the Spectrum (1991)
6b. Survey of the Spectrum (1991)
7. Border to Border Fiber Optics (1993)
8. Star Wars and General Confusion (1994)
9. Birds of a Feather (1995)
10. Lessons for the VoIP Revolution (2001)
11. Inventions I Never Made (2002)

Reading and Education
Phonics, Look-Say and Ideology (1976)
Comments on Dyslexia (1992)
A Nation of Course Junkies (1978)
Competence vs. Credentials (1989)
Schools and the Shortage of Skilled Labor (1991)

Deregulation and Competition
Let's Scrap Airline Deregulation (1987)
Competition and New Jersey Commuters (1989)
Utilities, Deregulation and Competition (1990)
Cost Based Pricing vs. Universal Service (1987)
Price Caps and Problems (1986)
The Greene Blues (1988)

Design and Development
Design and Management (1988)
Vested Interests vs. Innovation (1989)
Telstar Anniversary (1987)
The Systems Approach (1993)

Technology and Society
The Innovative Mr. Drucker (1985)
Fiber Optics and Junk Bonds (1990)
Physics vs. Marketing (1991)
Let's Hear it for the Service Economy (1990)
Harding and Reagan — Hoover and Bush (1988)
Patriotism and Jobs (1992)
The Three Problems (1992)

Introduction

On the Seminar Trail (1988)

I'd Rather Be Right (1995)

Call of the Wives (1994)

Generating Understanding of Technology (1996)

Oliver Evans, Inventor (1997)

Hot Time in Hinsdale (1989)

In the Wake of the Quake (1989)

How the Glitch Stole Martin Luther King's Birthday (1990)

FBI vs. ISDN (1992)

Phone Pirates (1994)

Almost Being Digital (1995)

The Insomniac Wizards Revisited (1998)

Competition for the Local Loop (1998)

A Curmudgeon's Eye View of Technological Innovation (1998)

The Microsoft Mistake (2000)

Introduction

What Happened to those 'Awful Proposals'? (March 1983)

And There Are Also Awful RFPs (April 1983)

Interlude: MCI’s Digital Network (November 82)

The Digital Jump Rope (May 1983)

Digital Possibilities (June 1983)

Marketing - Today and Tomorrow (July 1983)

My War with the CCS (August 1983)

The Pot and the Kettle (Unpublished)

Technology and Literacy (September 1983)

What is a Fourth Generation PBX? (October, November 1983)

1984. Or...Well...What Did You Expect? (Unpublished)

Play Ball (Feb 1984)

Alice in Telephoneland (April 1984)

The Impossible Alice (June 1984)

The Tailfin Syndrome (July 1984)

The Art of the State (September 1984)

A 4th of July Letter from a Grinch (Unpublished)

Some Dumb Ideas (September 85)

Addressing Success (Unpublished)

A Midnight Conversation (Unpublished)

Come On Guys - Give Us a Break! (Unpublished)

Postscript: An E-mail Conversation (Unpublished)

Introduction

Ten Trends to Watch (December 1984)

Megabit Madness; The Rise of Teledex; Gotcha List (March 1985)

ISDN Standards; Voice Mail (June 1985)

Fourth Generation PBXs (September 1985)

The Rolm T-Compatible Flap; Adventures With ISDN (January 1986)

Supersets for All; Automatic Operators (April 1986)

Rolm Redwood; On the Way to the Fourth Generation (July 1986)

Alternate Voice-Data Revisited; Conferencing vs Teleconferencing (October 1986)

The Switching Matrix  (January 1987)

Fax; Whither Bell Labs (April 1987)

PBX Designers; Designing PBXs (July 1987)

Which Way to Innovation? It’s All in How You Look At It (October 1987)

The New Rolm-IBM 9751; The Pot and the Kettle; Combining System 75 and 85; Once More Into the Breach (January 1988)

Networking; Access Fees; FTS-2000 (April 1988)

Primary Rate Interface; ONA Anyone? The Great Unix War; Distributed Systems (July 1988)

Advertising - Features vs. Architecture; GTE Directions; Telephone, TV and LECs; RCA, Mitel and Telenova; Competition (October 1988)

IBM and Siemens; Computers and PBXs; What is a Hybrid? (January 1989)

Bus vs. Central Switch (April 1989)

The Magic of Marketing (July 1989)

Small PBXs (October 1989)

What’s in a Name? End of an Era (January 1990)

Wiring (April 1990)

End of Western Union; Diskless Work Stations (July 1990)

Ten Trends We Watched (October 1990)

Introduction

Digital PBXs Have More Features (April 1990)

Railways vs. Transportation (May 1990)

People Want Solutions (June-July 1990)

ISDN is a Centrex Service (August 1990)

Competition is Producing All This Innovation (September 1990)

ISDN Uses Out of Band Signalling (October 1990)

The Seven Mystic Levels of OSI (November-December 1990)

Necessity is the Mother of Invention (May 1991)

Predictive Dialing Speeds Service (August 1991)

Playing Jacks is Just for Kids (Unpublished 1991)

Please Wait for Competition (September 1991)

If I Tell You Three Times, It’s True (October 1991)

Partnerizationing (November 1991)

Efficiency, Anyone? (January 1992)

ISDN and Cordless Phones (Unpublished 1992)

The Computer is Always Right (April 1992)

Once Again Into the Breach (May 1992)

Processing Cheerios (June-July 1992)

You Have Just Saved One Billion Dollars (June-July 1992)

The 80/20 Law is the Road to Profits (Unpublished 1992)

With Our New System... (Unpublished 1992)

N(N-1)/2 (Unpublished 1992)

Thinking About ATM (Unpublished 1994)

e-Mail on ATM (October 1996)

Coda: Thoughts on Being a Columnist