[comp.dcom.telecom] ISDN Summary

jrd@mit-amt.UUCP (Jim Davis) (09/28/87)

I'm looking for a discussion of ISDN, on about the technical level of IEEE
Spectrum or CACM.  I'm especially interested in how it affects user
interface.  For example, now that DTMF is not used for signalling (the D
channel handles that) can I be sure I'll be able to control e.g. my home
answering machine remotely?  Now I *don't* want someone to answer
this quesion, nor do I want to read the Specifications (which are surely
overkill):  what I want are pointers to decent summaries, even up
to book length.

-- 
ARPA:jrd@media-lab.media.mit.edu
Phone: (617)-253-0360

johnl@think.UUCP.UUCP (09/29/87)

The AT&T Technical Journal (formerly the BSTJ or the BLTJ) had a special issue
on ISDN in January 1986, volume 65 no. 1. It describes both ISDN and AT&T's
approach to implementing it. The issue also happens to be the first one after
they changed the journal from the old staid blue covers to the glitzy new
format with lots of color pictures.

Back issues are available from AT&T's CIC in Indianapolis at 800-432-6600.
Have a credit card (not your calling card) handy.

To answer the question that was posed, the terminal interface for ISDN is
entirely different from that for an analog telephone, so you can't plug your
existing answering machine in directly at all.

John Levine, ima!johnl or Levine@YALE.somethingorother