communications (ISDN) A set of communications
standards digital network services and video. ISDN is intended to
recommendations. The 1988
Blue Book recommendations added
that the basic "call" is a 64 kilobits per second, all-digital
provided in some places.
There are different kinds of ISDN connection of varying
DS0 = 1 channel PCM at 64 kbps
T1 or DS1 = 24 channels PCM at 1.54 Mbps
T1C or DS1C = 48 channels PCM at 3.15 Mbps
T2 or DS2 = 96 channels PCM at 6.31 Mbps
T3 or DS3 = 672 channels PCM at 44.736 Mbps
T4 or DS4 = 4032 channels PCM at 274.1 Mbps
Each channel here is equivalent to one voice channel. DS0 is
the lowest level of the circuit. T1C, T2 and T4 are rarely
used, except maybe for T2 over microwave links. For some
reason 64 kbps is never called "T0".
and a single "delta" channel ("2B+D"). A
Primary RateInterface (PRI) in North America and Japan consists of 24
channels, usually 23 B + 1 D channel with the same physical
interface as T1. Elsewhere the PRI usually has 30 B + 1 D
channel and an
E1 interface.
Different services may be requested by specifying different
values in the "Bearer Capability" field in the call setup
message. One ISDN service is "telephony" (i.e. voice), which
can be provided using less than the full 64 kbps bandwidth (64
kbps would provide for 8192 eight-bit samples per second) but
ordinary PSTN calls. Data calls have a Bearer Capability of
"64 kbps unrestricted".
ISDN is offered by local telephone companies, but most readily
in Australia, France, Japan and Singapore, with the UK
somewhat behind and availability in the USA rather spotty.
(In March 1994) ISDN deployment in Germany is quite
impressive, although (or perhaps, because) they use a
specifically German signalling specification, called
1.TR.6.
The French
Numeris also uses a non-standard protocol (called
VN4; the 4th version), but the popularity of ISDN in France
is probably lower than in Germany, given the ludicrous
pricing. There is also a specifically-Belgian V1 experimental
system. The whole of Europe is now phasing in
Euro-ISDN.
(1998-03-29)