Chapter 2: ISDN Helps People Work Together

Extending A Backbone

Literally thousands of universities, hospitals, corporate campuses and other multisite locations are today linked by high-speed backbone networks. These wide-area networks most often use dedicated, high-speed telecommunications channels to link many LANs in many locations into a single data network.

The one problem with these backbones, however, is that many smaller locations are often excluded because they cannot justify the cost of installing and maintaining dedicated data channels. Enter ISDN.

At Northeastern University in Boston, for example, dialed ISDN connections now give several student laboratories and faculty staff buildings high-speed digital access to the university's campuswide backbone. According to Chris Johnson, assistant director of systems for Northeastern's division of academic computing, dialed ISDN links now bring practical transmission speeds to these smaller locations. Combinet Ethernet bridges automatically dial and bond two B channels for effective speeds of 256Kbps with compression.

Other Sections Of This Chapter:

Beginning Of Chapter 2
Linking LANs Together
ISDN: Dialed LAN Connectivity
Individual Access To LANs
Extending A Backbone
Fast Efficient Worldwide File Transfers
ISDN For Network Overflow
High Speed For FAX
Graphic Arts
Prepress
Photo Retrieval
Publishing
Couriers