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The '''Switching Control Center System''' was an [[operations support system]] developed by [[Bell Laboratories]] and deployed during the early 1970s. This [[computer]] system was first based on the [[PDP-11]] product line from [[Digital Equipment Corporation]] and used the [[CB Unix]] [[operating system]] and custom [[application software]] and [[device drivers]] that were developed and maintained by [[Bell Labs]] in [[Columbus, Ohio]] USA. SCCS was ported to the [[AT&T Computer Systems|AT&T 3B20 and 3B5]] computers running [[UNIX System V]] Release 2 in the early 1980s.

Prior to the SCCS, many [[telephone company]] [[Telephone exchange|switching centers]] were staffed 24 hours a day 365 days a year. With SCCS, telephone companies could significantly reduce the number of technicians and dispatch them as required to resolve problems or perform [[Planned maintenance|routine maintenance]] operations.

During the early 1970s, telephone companies began to phase out the older electromechanical switching systems such as the [[1XB switch|Number 1 Crossbar]], [[5XB switch|Number 5 Crossbar]], and [[Strowger switch|step-by-step]] circuit switching systems and replace them with newer [[electronic switching system]]s that were controlled by proprietary computers but still used analog switch fabrics such as Bell-proprietary [[ferreed switch]] devices.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ieeeshutpages.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/services_update.html?f5-fallback-aem|title=Services Update|website=ieeeshutpages.s3-website-us-west-2.amazonaws.com}}</ref>

The SCCS system was phased out during the late 1990s and replaced by an [[Operations Support Systems|OSS]] known as Network Monitoring and Analysis<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.telcordia.com/products/nma/index.html | title=Telcordia® NMA® System CE | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20040409075654/http://www.telcordia.com/products/nma/index.html | archivedate=2004-04-09}}</ref> or [[Network Monitoring and Analysis|NMA]] that was developed by [[Bell Communications Research]] now Telcordia Technologies. AT&T developed additional products based on SCCS software, such as Compulert.

The primary purpose of the SCCS system was to provide operations, [[System administrator|administration]], [[Maintenance, repair and operations|maintenance]], and [[provisioning (telecommunications)|provisioning]] ([[OAMP]]) functions for [[telephone company]] network operations staff. The SCCS accepted as input the slow 110 [[baud]] [[teleprinter|Teletype]] messages from [[Telecommunication circuit|circuit]] [[switching systems]] such as the [[1ESS switch|Number 1 ESS]], Number 2 ESS, Number 3 ESS, [[5ESS switch|Number 5 ESS]], and [[Traffic Service Position System]] ([[TSPS]]) network switches and provide analysis, reports, troubleshooting support, and other functions using newer faster DataSpeed-40 terminals.

This system was documented in the Bell System Technical Journal and [[AT&T]] internal [[Bell System Practices]] during the 1970s.

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Telephony]]

Switching Control Center System - Revision history

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