Voice Switch?

new2net

out of curiousity...

im at the section of the icnd1 book that explains how Cable and DSL works... what a headend is.. what a DSLAM is ect.. and how they function (man this stuff is SO cool!!)

it makes me wonder... what is a voice swtich at a Telco CO?


lets say we are not using the phone line for DSL... but just as a regular phone... the cable ends up at a voice swich at the telco which "switches" your calls... i am wondering what these switches are... are they Cisco Catalyst switches...?

or even if we are using the phone line as DSL connection.. the DLSAM will send appropriate signals to ISP and voice calls to the voice switch... just not too clear on what a voice switch is... in my mind I am thinking that my voice calls end up at Cisco Catalyst switch at the Telco CO...which switches them over the PSTN to their destination...

I google "voice switch" and got some unfamilar looking devices and descriptions of things that sound similar to what swiches (as i know them do)...

networker050184

It won't be a Cisco Catalyst. At that point the voice is not VoIP so the Cisco couldn't really do anything with it.

It will probably be something like a Nortel DMS at the switch.