Integrated Services Digital Network - An Overview

Originally, analog telecommunication services, also known as a Plain Old Telephone System (POTS), were the only source of telecommunication worldwide, before the coming of age of ISDN. POTS was the originally acronym for Post Office Telephone System or Service, but changed when post offices stopped offering telephone services and it comprised mainly of copper wires which linked the subscriber's home to the central switch office. This type of telecommunication had its limitations. Long distance calls had to be routed through operators and switchboards, which made them highly unreliable and time consuming and there was also the issue of static inference known as line noise, which disturbed communication. ISDN stands for Integrated Services Digital Network and is a fully digital telephone line that can carry voice, image, video and digital network services. ISDN transceivers facilitate full fidelity and two-way communication between different locations. ISDN voice-overs are of excellent quality, extremely clear and free of background noise. As a user, you can feel assured knowing that your voice-overs will sound just as good as those recorded in your own studio. The benefits of using ISDN for internet connections is a lot greater compared to using the old telephone dial up service as an Internet Service Provider (ISP). The ISDN dial-up connection offers speeds equivalent to that of a broadband connection. There are a number of additional benefits of using ISDN connections, as follows: Multiple Devices In the past, you needed an individual phone line for each device, including service, fax, computers and video conferencing. All that has changed with the advent of ISDN, which comes with a host of functions, including: • Voice, data and video have no interference or noise, corrupting the quality of service, since data is sent via packets or groups • Simultaneous transfer of services is possible with the same ISDN line, such as making calls, receiving fax and connecting to the internet all at once • Each service has a signal which works with the ISDN network to ensure there is more history and fewer errors with multiple connection. Speed Having multiple digital channels means you can compress all channels and come up with bandwidths of up to 128 Kb/s. This is due to the 2 B-channels, each 64 Kb/s respectively. It allows you to accomplish a lot of things which were previously unavailable on normal modems, including: • Faster, direct connections, with no dialing issues and downtime • Video conferencing and streaming without disruptions • Video conferencing with multiple recipients • Uninterrupted gaming due to faster connections