Digital Cross Connect or DXX is a system that covert the signals from one communication medium to another. Typically DXX was used to convert the high level TDM signals in telephone systems for example DSI bit streams into another DSI streams. DXX devices are available for both T – carrier and E- Carrier based circuits. DXX are also used to connect two different data streams like Frame Relay and Serial Communication. DXX circuits can be used switch traffic from one circuit to another in case of a network failure among the network.
For example if a frame relay network gets deactivated for any reason, DXX can convert the traffic to another network like ATM.
In this case DXX switches can manipulate the traffic circuits between different networks and network types. It is also used to provide interoperability between network devices and network speeds.
With DXX, higher levels of flexibility can be provided which in any other case can cause greater costs to the network operations.
This flexibility comes with DXX at lower costs. With DXX, synchronization becomes possible with higher network seeds and lower network speeds.
One important thing to be noted is that DXX are not packet network switches. DXX switch between circuits and are a special means for circuit switched networks. This arrangement is also inevitable in longer networks like the ones that expand over weeks or months.
This type of arrangement can’t be made in packet networks that operate over short period of time. DXX are different from packet switches in a way that packet switches provide the transportation to different network destinations while in the case of DXX, it has a specific set of destinations to which it switches traffic in circuits.
Digital Cross connects can connect extremely high speed networks with lower speed networks to achieve a mutually synchronized speed for common data transformation in the network.
SXX are also capable of interconnect fiber optic equipment and D1/ T1/ E1 etc. It can even provide compatibility between rather new SDH, PDH and SONET.
If the speed of SDH is 40 mbps and the speed id T1 is 2 Mbps then with the help of two DXXs, Two T1as and one SDH, you can divert two different streams of T1 to SDH and vice versa making a communication of 4 Mbps possible through the network.
It is also possible to connect more T1s with single SDH for maximum medium utilization through multiple DXXs. You can avoid higher costs through DXX by using DSX cross connect patch panels.