Farallon Communications 612 - Manual (Page 14)

2-2 Netopia ISDN Modem User’s Guide
About ISDN
ISDN uses digital technology to connect to the public telephone
network. Using the existing copper wire and public telephone
network infrastructure, ISDN provides for existing voice ser vices
and high-speed, dial-up data ser vice.
Networks using ISDN communicate more efficiently than those
using analog lines. This is due to the relatively low cost of ISDN, the
fact that digital lines are relatively free of the random noise
associated with analog lines, and the high communication speeds
that can be achieved. ISDN Basic Rate Inter face (BRI) lines can
reach speeds of up to 128 thousand bits per second (Kbps). A
typical high-speed modem can only send data over an analog line at
up to 28.8 Kbps.
You can conver t almost any existing regular telephone line to ISDN
by ordering ISDN ser vice for that line. In most cases, no rewiring is
necessar y for the conversion and no special equipment is needed
to use the conver ted line with your Netopia ISDN Modem. (Keep in
mind that if you conver t an analog line to an ISDN line, you will not
be able to directly connect analog devices to the ISDN line in most
cases.)
ISDN and the Netopia ISDN Modem
If you’ve been using an ordinar y modem to dial into analog data
ser vices, such as a corporate LAN or online ser vice, you can
continue to do so with your digital ISDN line. Simply connect your
analog modem to one of the analog device por ts on the Netopia
ISDN Modem and continue to use your analog devices in the same
fashion as before.
The Netopia ISDN Modem will conver t the analog signal to a digital
signal for transmission over the ISDN line in such a way that it can
be retransmitted by the public switched network to an analog
device.