TABLE OF CONTENTS DR. MAURIZIO DECINA [*] and DR. ALDO ROVERI
Professors of Electrical Communications
INFOCOM Department
University of Rome
Rome, Italy
An introduction to the emerging integrated services digital network (ISDN) is given in this chapter, which is organized in three parts.
The first part gives a framework for the ISDN concept. International worldwide developments promoting the introduction of such networks are also described. This first part is a self-contained contribution for readers interested only in a general overview.
The other two parts expand the concepts introduced in the first part. They deal with network architectures and protocols for the ISDN with an emphasis on terrestrial network implementations.
In particular, the second part considers the general trade-offs among various communications switching techniques necessary to enable voice, data, and video information transfer. Also described are the main ISDN approaches chosen in North America and Europe, with reference to their planned implementations.
The protocol aspects, described in the third part, cover both dedicated network standards and current trends for ISDN applications. Both user-access protocols and interexchange protocols are briefly considered.
[*]On leave of absence at the ITALTEL Central Research Laboratories, Milan, Italy.
In this first part of the chapter an overview of current implementations of dedicated digital networks for voice and data is first presented (Section 2.1.1). Then, a wider range of communication services and technological advances providing the synergistic element for the development of the ISDN is considered (Section 2.1.2). The evolving ISDN scenarios...
