CHAPTER
12-1
Internetworking Technologies Handbook
1-58705-001-3
12
Chapter Goals
• Explain what ISDN is.
• Describe ISDN devices and how they operate.
• Describe the specifications for ISDN data transmittal for the three layers at which ISDN transmits.
Integrated Services Digital Network
Introduction
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is comprised of digital telephony and data-transport services
offered by regional telephone carriers. ISDN involves the digitization of the telephone network, which
permits voice, data, text, graphics, music, video, and other source material to be transmitted over existing
telephone wires. The emergence of ISDN represents an effort to standardize subscriber services,
user/network interfaces, and network and internetwork capabilities. ISDN applications include
high-speed image applications (such as Group IV facsimile), additional telephone lines in homes to serve
the telecommuting industry, high-speed file transfer, and videoconferencing. Voice service is also an
application for ISDN. This chapter summarizes the underlying technologies and services associated with
ISDN.
ISDN Devices
ISDN devices include terminals, terminal adapters (TAs), network-termination devices, line-termination
equipment, and exchange-termination equipment. ISDN terminals come in two types. Specialized ISDN
terminals are referred to as terminal equipment type 1 (TE1). Non-ISDN terminals, such as DTE, that
predate the ISDN standards are referred to as terminal equipment type 2 (TE2). TE1s connect to the
ISDN network through a four-wire, twisted-pair digital link. TE2s connect to the ISDN network through
a TA. The ISDN TA can be either a standalone device or a board inside the TE2. If the TE2 is
implemented as a standalone device, it connects to the TA via a standard physical-layer interface.
Examples include EIA/TIA-232-C (formerly RS-232-C), V.24, and V.35.
Beyond the TE1 and TE2 devices, the next connection point in the ISDN network is the network
termination type 1 (NT1) or network termination type 2 (NT2) device. These
are network-termination devices that connect the four-wire subscriber wiring to the conventional
two-wire local loop. In North America, the NT1 is a customer premises equipment (CPE) device. In most
other parts of the world, the NT1 is part of the network provided by the carrier. The NT2 is a more