Supervision and signaling in telecom circuits part 1 of 5
A telecommunication circuit is any line, conductor, or other conduit by which information is transmitted.
Contents
A dedicated circuit, private circuit, or leased line is a line that is dedicated to only one use. Originally, this was analog, and was often used by radio stations as a studio/transmitter link (STL) or remote pickup unit (RPU) for their audio, sometimes as a backup to other means. Later lines were digital, and used for private corporate data networks.
The opposite of a dedicated circuit is a switched circuit, which can be connected to different paths. A POTS or ISDN telephone line is a switched circuit, because it can connect to any other telephone number.
On digital lines, a virtual circuit can be created to serve either purpose, while sharing a single physical circuit.
Definitions
A telecommunication circuit may be defined as follows: