Abstract: A 3-stage switching system is provided for generating, i.e. finding, reserving and setting, path from one switch entrance port (1) to at least one switch exit port (transmit side) for asynchronously received and buffered data cells. While an Nth cell is being transferred, control means (36) generate a control word including the switch exit port address for cell (N+1)th to be subsequently transferred. Said control word is used to find and reserve a path through the switch on a stage-by-stage basis, and then set said path, if any, using a fed back acknowledgement. The (N+1)th cell path generation is performed during cell N transfer, on a cycle stealing basis.

Abstract: A method for determining the initial values of the coefficients of a transversal equalizer for a synchronous data transmission system, wherein a training sequence is transmitted to allow the equalizer coefficients to be adjusted to optimum initial values. According to the method, a sequence (v.sub.i) of L elements v.sub.i, having a periodic autocorrelation function, only the first coefficient of which is not zero, is derived from a periodic binary pseudo-random sequence (u.sub.i) of L binary elements u.sub.i having a periodic autocorrelation function, the first coefficient of which is equal to L and each of the other coefficients are equal to -1. Then, the sequence (v.sub.i) is transmitted through the transmission channel and the initial values of the equalizer coefficients are derived from the received sequence.