Implementation and evaluation of logical communication device interfaces

Switching systems today require an enormous amount of communication control software. It is therefore vital to develop a software architecture that assures application software portability, allows continual enhancement of communication hardware, and provides multivendor interfaces. The authors present input/output control design rules and interfaces based on CTRON logical communication control interfaces, and discusses the application of these interfaces to the experimental switching system. The authors first propose a three-layer software structure. Next, they describe the interface design rules for the input/output functions, fault detection functions, device control functions, and diagnostic functions. Then they evaluate the portability of the extended OS and application software in a prototype switching system. Finally, they evaluate the application of these interfaces to a multivendor environment.