e calling subscriber indicating that the dialed number is ringing. Postdialing delay must be made as short as possible. Another important consideration is register occupancy time for call setup as the setup proceeds from originating exchange to terminating exchange. Call-setup equipment, that equipment used to establish a speech path through a switch and to select the proper outgoing trunk, is expensive. By reducing register occupancy per call, we may be able to reduce the number of registers (and markers) per switch, thus saving money. Link-by-link and end-to-end signaling each affect register occupancy and postdialing delay, each differently. Of course, we are considering calls involving one or more tandem exchanges in a call setup, because this situation usually occurs on long-distance or toll calls. Link-by-link signaling may be defined as a signaling system where all interregister address information must be transferred to the subsequent exchange in the call-setup routing. Once this information is received at this exchange, the preceding exchange control unit (register) releases. This same operation is carried on from the originating exchange through each tandem (transit) exchange to the terminating exchange of the call. The R-1 system is an example of link-by-link signaling. End-to-end signaling abbreviates the process such that tandem (transit) exchanges receive only the minimum information necessary to route the call. For instance, the last four digits of a seven-digit telephone number need be exchanged only between the orig- inating exchange (e.g., the calling subscriber's local exchange or the first toll exchange in the call setup) and the terminating exchange in the call setup. With this type of sig- naling, fewer digits are required to be sent (and acknowledged) for the overall call-setup sequence. Thus the signaling process may be carried out much more rapidly, decreasing postdialing delay. Intervening exchanges on the call route work much less, handling only the digits necessary to pass the call to 