Digital switching system reliability is the ultimate gating factor in the continued expansion of the Internet, and a key competitive differentiator in the deregulated telecommunications market. This authoritative book enables telecommunications design engineers, service providers, and reliability and software engineers to gain a more complete understanding of digital switching systems and how to upgrade digital switching system reliability in their organizations. It is the first book to bring digital switching system design, hardware and software reliability, and maintenance under one coverNemploying advanced Markov models and a variety of analysis tools and techniques to assess digital switching system reliability.