Routing in the PSTN

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Routing in the PSTN is the process of forwarding telephone calls between the constituent telephone networks that comprise the public switched telephone network (PSTN).

Telephone calls are routed across a network of potentially many switching systems, often owned by different telephone carriers. Switching systems are connected with trunks. Each switch may have many neighbors. Neighboring switches owned by different operators are connected at interconnect points.

The PSTN is a network that uses destination routing to direct calls from origin to the recipient. It is not a full mesh network with the nodes of every operator directly connected to those of every other, which would be impractical and inefficient. Therefore, calls may be routed through intermediate operator networks before they reach their final destination. Efficient least-cost routing is an important procedure in PSTN routing.