rwhite@nu3b2.UUCP (Robert C. White Jr.) (07/14/87)
Hello, I am posting this here because I saw someone with ISDN displayed in their signiture. Since nobody else seems to care, I just thought I'd mention a horrid mistake/oission in the ISDN standard that could really make the difference. It goes like this: People keep acting like ISDN is something for later. Nobody would want it in their home. "It wont be able to do anything for me" [etc.] The problem is that the standard dosn't go that tiny step that would make the system work. I am working on a few assumptions which follows: 1) universal pulg protability would be a good thing. 2) Nobody wants the standard to die in a few years. 3) Everything should be valid on an ISDN network. and 4) Everything should be able to talk to every other thing. Here is my modest proposal: An eight (8) byte identity which is made up of three fields but can be treated as a single large number. The first byte would represent a domain. The last byte would represent a parameter which would almost always be zero. the middle six bytes represent a large unsigned interger which has been arbitrarily assigned to a function. the reserved domains are: 255 Global 254 Special Ring 000 General function [manually dialed/service request] the reserved intergers are: 000000000000 Domain Restart. FFFFFFFFFFFF Domain Reset. These packets would travel on/through the singaling chanel. Each device in the path may add any packets they desire. Each device MUST pass all packets to any child/dependant device. Any device may safely ignore any packet it does not understand. Each packet represents a unique boolean condition, and is generated by any device in the link. On an off-hook condition the switch starts the queue with a "Global Domain Reset" The handset, if able, provides a set of booleans which represent what it wants from the circut. Any manually dialed booleans come as an astrisk followed by a number [...] followed by a pound sign; the phone nuber follows the pound sign [which marks the end of the last boolean and is foregone if no boleans are present.] These ECPs would be defined for Enable/Disable Answering Machine/ Voice Mail, Viedo Data Enable, Max Data Rate [slowest link provides smalest parameter for symplicity], Special Endpoint Ring, and many others I can think of. This addition would make marketing ISDN devices profitable in the small buisness and home markets. It would also add the flexability needed for later when the Basic Rate Interface becomes an international dog. [and It will Eventually] Best of all!!!! It can be implemented TOTALLY within software on any ISDN capable switch [like a 5ESS] with NO hardware mods, and small micro-controlers can compleetly contian the code easily and ignore the unimportant flack with impunity. [at least one hundred can be passed in the "connect second" so this is no cruel dog] For more info, if you are intrested contact: Robert C. White Jr. [National University] 1-800-628-8648 [San Diego Campus x140] sdcsvax!ucsdhub!jack!man!rwhite I have most of the details worked, but I don't have the full standards. I am willing to work for this, It is important. Robert. Disclaimer: My mind is so fragmented by random excursions into a wilderness of abstractions and incipient ideas that the practical purposes of the moment are often submerged in my consciousness and I don't know what I'm doing. [my employers certainly have no idea]