All About ISDN |
The "analog" telephone connections that the vast majority of the population in the US now use to place voice, fax, and modem calls were first installed in the late 1920s. This technology was only designed to transmit a human voice. Many things we take for granted, like computers and the Internet, now depend on digital technologies. To get around the limitations of analog technology, modern communications devices, like modems, use clever work-arounds that function adaquetly but are not nearly as efficient as digital technology is capable of
To send data over analog lines, standard modems simply convert your computer's digital signals into analog form. Then, at the other end of the call, the signal is converted back to digital again. This technique is inefficient, particularly when you add in the processing the telephone company uses to send analog telephone signals from one central office switching location to the next. All of these conversions together take a high toll on data transmission speeds and bandwidth.
Today's, ISDN (Integrated systems digital network) is modern digital technology that is designed to work very efficeintly with the telco's computerized switching equipment. ISDN devices, in fact, are so integral to the telephone network that they are called terminal adapters. An ISDN terminal adapter is like a computer terminal connected directly to the telephone company's computer system. Since ISDN adapters become part of the phone company's computer network, they take full advantage of all the digital features the modern telephone network is capable of.
An ISDN line is actually three telephone lines in one. Each ISDN line has two 64,000 bits per second B channels for voice or data calls, and one 16,000 bps Data or D channel that sends call control information back and forth directly between your ISDN terminal adapter and the phone company's computerized switching equipment. Analog to digital conversions do not have to be made using ISDN, greatly increasing the speed of transmission and bandwidth available to the user.
How does all this affect me?
A single ISDN allows you to do a lot of things that you simply could not do in the past without a lot of individual analog lines. You can now have telephone on a ISDN line and still implement "advanced calling features," like call waiting and forwarding, since your equipment handles those functions and not the Telco's. For most people, though, the best thing about ISDN is that it is around five times faster than a standard analog modem.
The most obvious advantage of using ISDN is to connect to the Internet. With its two 64Kbps B channels, Internet users can choose to dial in to the Internet at 64Kbps while using the second B channel for other things, or use both B channels together to connect at 128Kbps. ISDN lines can also be used to place video conferencing and video phone calls, allow telecommuting to work.
First you must order a special ISDN phone line from the telephone company. Then you must buy special ISDN equipment to take advantage of it all. After that you have to configure your ISDN hardware properly and then get the phone company to configure their switching equipment properly. The phone company has to have special equipment to provide you with an ISDN line. SWBT does. And, finally ISDN must be available in your area. SWBT must be called to confirm that you can get ISDN in your desired location BEFORE you purchase any special equipment.
We can arrange all the details for you to get you up and running with ISDN FAST.
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Caprock Internet Solutions is able to handle ALL of your ISDN needs.