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ISDN NOTES

CONCEPTS OF ISDN
1) Principle of ISDN
2) Evolution of ISDN
3) The user interface
4) Objectives
5) Benefits
6) Services
7) Architecture
1. PRINCIPLE OF ISDN:
a) Support of voice and non voice applications using a limited set of standardized
facilities.
- This principle defines the purpose of ISDN and the means of achieving it.
- ISDN support voice communication (telephone calls) and non voice communication
(digital
data exchange).
b) Support for switched and non switched applications:
- ISDN will support for circuit switching and packet switching.
- ISDN will support for non switched services in the form of dedicated lines.
c) Reliance on 64 kbps connection:
- ISDN provides circuit switched and packet switched connection at 64 kbps.
d)Intelligence in the network:
- ISDN provides network management and maintenance capabilities.
e)Layered protocol architecture:
- ISDN protocols exhibit a layered architecture and can be mapped to OSI model(open
system interconnections).
- This allows gradual implementation of ISDN services to a given customer base.
f)Variety of configurations:
- More than one physical configuration is possible for implementing ISDN and provides
the
usage of existing equipment of the customer base.
2. EVOLUTION OF ISDN:
a) Evolution from telephone IDN’s:
- The ISDN evolve from the existing telephone networks.
- Existing telephone network forms the foundation for the services to be provided by
ISDN.
b) Transition of one (or) more decades:
- The introduction of ISDN services will be done in the context of existing digital
facilities
and services.
- Protocol conversion will be needed between alternative facilities and/or services.
c) Use of existing networks:
- If an ISDN will provide a packet switched service, for the time being the interface to
that
service will be X.25 (fast packet switching) may need to be a new interface in the future.
d) Interim user-network interface:
- With the lack of digital subscriber lines might delay introduction of digital services in

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

developing countries.
- With the use of modems and other equipment existing analog facilities can support to
some countries.
e)Connection at other than 64 kbps:
- The 64 kbps data rate was chosen as the basic channel for circuit switching.
- For digital data application the data rate is too low.
- Thus other data rates will be needed.
3. USER INTERFACE:
#) The user has access to the ISDN by mean of a local interface to a digital “pipe” of a
certain
bit rate.
(i)A residential customer may require only sufficient capacity to handle a telephone and a
personal customer.
(ii)An office may wish to connect digital PBX,LAN to the ISDN and this will require
higher
capacity pipe.

4. OBJECTIVES:
#)National governments, data processing and communication companies, standards
organizations and others are leading to the development of worldwide ISDN.

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

#)They are in need of certain common objectives.


#)They are,
a. Standardization
b. Transparency
c. Separation of competitive functions
d. Lost related tariffs
e. Smooth migration
f. Multiplexed support
a)Standardization:
- Standards will provide for universal access to the network.
- ISDN – standard equipment can be moved from one location to another(eg. From one
country to another) and be plugged into the network.
- The cost of such equipment will be minimized because of the competition among many
vendors to provide the same type of functionality.
b)Transparency:
- The service is independent of and does not affect the content of the user data to be
transmitted.
- This permits users to develop application and protocols with the confidence that they
will
not be affected by the underlying ISDN .
- Once a circuit (or) virtual circuit is setup, the user should be able to send information
without the provider being aware of the type of information being carried.
c) Separation of competitive functions:
- It must be possible to separate out functions that could be provided competitively as
opposed to those that are fundamentally part of the ISDN.
- A single, government will provide all services in many countries.
- In some countries require certain enhanced services be offered competitively.E.g.
Videotex, electronic mail.
d) Leased and switched services:
- This is used to configure the network services and allow the user to optimize on the
basis
of cost and performance.
e) Cost related tariff:
- The price for ISDN service should be related to cost and independent of the type of data
being carried.
- The price is related to specific performance and functional characteristics of a service.
f) Smooth migration:
- To provide for a smooth migration to ISDN, ISDN interface should evolve from
existing
interfaces and inter working arrangements must be designed.E.g. adapter equipment,
internetwork protocols and protocol converters.
g) Multiplexed support:
- Providing low capacity support to individual users multiplexed support must be
provided to
accommodate user owned PBX and local area network (LAN) equipment.
5. BENEFITS:

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

- The principle benefits of ISDN to the customer can be cost savings and flexibility.
- The integration of voice and a variety of data on a ingle transport system means that the
user does not meet multiple needs.
6. SERVICES:

Facsimile:
- Service for the transmission and reproduction of graphics and hand written and printed
material.
- This can be used to transmit a page of data at 64 kbps in 5 seconds.
Teletex:
- This service is for exchange correspondence. Used to prepare, edit, transmit and print
messages.
- Transmission is at a rate of one page in two seconds at 9.6 kbps.
Videotex:
- An interactive information retrieval service.
- A page of data can be transmitted in 1 second at 9.6 kbps
7. ARCHITECTURE:
#)ISDN will support physical connector for users.
- A digital subscriber line.
- Transmission services.
- Common physical interface provides telephone interface, personal computer and video
tex
terminal.
- The terminal equipment is the customer equipment and network termination is the
device
on the customer premises.
- Subscriber line is the physical signal path from the subscribers NT to the ISDN central
office.
- ISDN central office connects numerous subscriber lines to the digital network which
provides,
a) Circuit switched capabilities:
- Operating at 64 kbps provided by other digital switched telecommunication network.
b) Non switched capabilities:
- 64 kbps dedicated link provided by broadband ISDN used for asynchronous transfer
mode transmission.
c) Switched capabilities:
- High speed >64 kbps switched connections using ATM as a part of broadband ISDN.
d) Packet switched capabilities:
- this facility resembles packed switched service provided by other networks.
e)Frame mode capabilities:
- a service that supports frame relay.
f) Common channel signaling capabilities:
- These are used to control network and provide call management. It uses SS7 signaling
system number-7.
g) It has a capability of user to network control dialogue.

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

Digital Communications with ISDN

Transmission Structure

 Digital pipe between central office and ISDN subscriber carry a number of
communication channels, varies from user to user
 The transmission structure of access links includes channels of:
 B channel: 64 kbps
 D channel: 16 or 64 kbps
 H channel: 384 (H0), 1536 (H11), or 1920 (H12) kbps

B Channel:
 A user channel, carrying digital data, PCM-encoded digital voice, or a
mixture of lower-rate traffic at a fraction of 64 kbps
 The information is carried in frame format, using either high-level data link
control (HDLC) or PPP as the Layer 2 protocol. PPP is more robust than HDLC
because it provides a mechanism for authentication and negotiation of compatible
link and protocol configuration.
D Channel:

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

 Carry common-channel signaling (CCS) information to control circuit-


switched calls
 Traffic over the D channel employs the Link Access Procedure on the D
Channel (LAPD) protocol. LAPD is a data link layer protocol based on
HDLC.
 May be used for packet switching or low speed (e.g. 100 bps) telemetry
(data transfer over media) when no signaling information is waiting

ISDN Channel Functions:

H Channel:
 Provides user information transmission at higher data rates
 Use the channel as a high-speed trunk or subdivide it based on TDM
 Examples: fast fax, video, high-speed data, high quality audio
Basic Rate Interface:
The entry level interface to ISDN is the Basic Rate Interface (BRI), a 144 kbit/s service delivered over a pair of standard telephone copper wires.
The 144 kbit/s rate is broken down into two 64 kbit/s bearer channels ('B' channels) and one 16 kbit/s signalling channel ('D' channel).

BRI is sometimes referred to as 2B+D

The Interface specifies three different network interfaces:

* The U interface is a two-wire interface between the exchange and the Network Terminating Unit which is usually the demarcation point in non-
North American networks.
* The T interface is a serial interface between a computing device and a Terminal Adapter, which is the digital equivalent of a modem.
* The S interface is a four-wire bus that ISDN consumer devices plug into; the S & T reference points are commonly implemented as a single

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

interface labeled 'S/T' on an NT1


* The R interface defines the point between a non-ISDN device and a terminal adapter (TA) which provides translation to and from such a
device.

BRI-ISDN is very popular in Europe but is much less common in North America.

Primary Rate Interface:


The other ISDN service available is the Primary Rate Interface (PRI) which is carried over an E1 (2048 kbit/s) in most parts of the world. An E1
is 30 'B' channels of 64 kbit/s, one 'D' channel of 64 kbit/s and a timing and alarm channel of 64 kbit/s. In North America PRI service is delivered
on one or more T1s (sometimes referred to as 23B+D) of 1544 kbit/s (24 channels). A T1 has 23 'B' channels and 1 'D' channel for signalling
(Japan uses a circuit called a J1, which is similar to a T1).

In North America, NFAS allows two or more PRIs to be controlled by a single D channel, and is sometimes called '23B+D + n*24B'. D-channel
backup allows you to have a second D channel in case the primary fails. One popular use of NFAS is on a T3.

PRI-ISDN is popular throughout the world, especially for connection of PSTN circuits to PBXs."

Even though many network professionals use the term 'ISDN' to refer to the lower-bandwidth BRI circuit, in North America by far the majority
of ISDN services are in fact PRI circuits serving PBXs

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

Broadband ISDN: Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network


(BISDN)

Broandband Integrated Services Digital Network (BISDN or Broadband ISDN) is


designed to handle high-bandwidth applications. BISDN currently uses ATM technology
over SONET-based transmission circuits to provide data rates from 155 to 622Mbps and
beyond, contrast with the traditional narrowband ISDN (or N-ISDN), which is only 64
Kb ps basically and up to 2 Mbps.

The designed Broadband ISDN (BISDN) services can be categori z ed as follows:

• Conversational services such astelephone-like services, which was also supported


by N-ISDN. Also the additional bandwidth offered will allow such services as
video telephony, video conferencing and high volume, high speed data transfer.

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

• Messaging services, which is mainly a store-and-forward type of service.


Applications could include voice and video mail, as well as multi-media mail and
traditional electronic mail.
• Retrieval services whichprovides access to (public) information stores, and
information is sent to the user on demand only.
• No user control of presentation.This would be for instance, a TV broadcast, where
the user can choose simply either to view or not.
• User controlled presentation.This would apply to broadcast information that the
user can partially control.

The B-ISDN is designed to offer both connection oriented and connectionless services. The broadband information
transfer is provided by the use of asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), in both cases, using end-to-end logical connections
or virtual circuits. Broadband ISDN uses out-of-band signaling (as does N-ISDN). Instead of using a D Channel as in N-
ISDN, a special virtual circuit channel can be used for signaling. However, B-ISDN was not widely deployed so far.

Protocol Structure - B ISDN: Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network


(Broadband ISDN)
Broadband ISDN protocol reference model is based on the ATM reference model

ATM adaptation layer (AAL). This layer is responsible for mapping the service offered
by ATM to the service expected by the higher layers. It has two sublayers.

ATM Layer. This layer is independent of the physical medium over which transmission is
to take place. It has those functions: Generic flow control (GFC) function, Cell header
generation and extraction, Cell multiplex and de multiplex.

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)
ISDN NOTES

Physical layer. This consists of two sublayers: Transport Convergence (TC) and Physical
medium (PM)

The management plane consists of two functions to perform layer management and plane
management. The plane management is not layered as the other layers are. This is
because it relies needs information on all aspects of the system to provide management
facilities for the systems as a whole. The layer management provides information and
control facilities for the protocol entities that exists in each individual layer. This includes
operation and maintenance (OAM) functions for each layer.

The control plane is responsible for the supervision of connections, including call set-up,
call release and maintenance.

The user plane provides for the transfer of user information. It also includes mechanisms
to perform error recovery, flow control etc.

Astt. Professor Kapil Kumar Gupta


(GITM LUCKNOW)

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