Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!accuvax.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: euatdt@euas17c10.ericsson.se (Torsten Dahlkvist) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: ISDN and TCP/IP Message-ID: <2108@accuvax.nwu.edu> Date: 12 Dec 89 12:10:24 GMT Sender: news@accuvax.nwu.edu Reply-To: Torsten Dahlkvist Organization: Ellemtel Utvecklings AB, Stockholm, Sweden Lines: 74 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 570, message 3 of 8 Hello again! In article <2023@accuvax.nwu.edu> jwb@cit5.cit.oz (Jim Breen) writes: >What you need to solve your problems are some ISDN Terminal Adaptors >(TA) of various flavors. The problem is they haven't been developed >yet! In (a) above you need a pair of asynch TA's, i.e. TA's which map >various asynch speeds onto a 64k channel, enabling access to some sort >of terminal server. In (b) we all hope there is a PC card coming which >speaks BRI. Of course you need to connect somewhere, so it might be >slip after all. For (c) a TA which can bridge ethernet segments would >be fine. >Clearly there is a long way to go with data access to ISDN, and there >is room for a lot of innovative product development. Start shouting at >your suppliers NOW. Better still, get some designers and builders >together with a venture capitalist and go for it. Funny you should ask... I spent five years (83 - 88) as part of Ericsson's ISDN terminal project. We did produce a feature-phone and a range of TA:s which conform very closely to the "official" ISDN spec. The deviations were due to the fact that the specs aren't yet quite waterproof. There are, to put it bluntly, holes in the protocols at some places, so we had to device ways around these. Ericsson's terminals are available NOW for Ericsson customers. The TA:s handle V24, X21 and X25 to mention the more popular protocols. The only problems are availability and the prices... You see, we started that project way back before any VLSI:s had appeared on the market (actually, we cooperated closely with AMD in their work with their chipset) and the custom-circuits used in that first generation of terminals are *expensive* and hard to get. This puts the prices of the terminals at a level few customers can handle and in reality all sales so far have been to Telcos using Ericsson equipment who want to set up field-trials for ISDN. So why don't we re-build them using state-of-the-art hardware and market quick as hell? Partly because the afore-mentioned gaps in the protocols are still there, no *true* standard exists. Partly because no-one in their right minds ventures a project like that when it's well known that several major Japanese producers have competing products in the pipe-line. We're a high-tech, high-cost country. We can't compete with far east producers when it comes to volume sales and all projections indicate that we'd get the market kicked out from under our feet well before we'd made our investment back. However, all is not lost. There are at least a couple of Ericsson trials going on in the U.S. today so if you're lucky enough to be in one of them you may soon get your datacomm gear :-) Sorry if this all sounds like a lot of gripe and blatant advertising. It's just that when Jim said "The problem is they haven't been developed yet" I felt I had to point out that there's a difference between "doesn't exist" and "isn't available in the U.S.". I *know* for a fact that our equipment is beeing installed in Mexico City. But how do you sell telecom equipment on a market where everybody still believes in their hearts that AT&T is the best while spending half the bandwidth of comp.dcom.telecom arguing that Sprint is better... :-) Disclaimer: I DO work for an Ericsson subsidiary but that doesn't mean I have any say-so. Anybody asking for price-quotations will be promptly referred to some suitable sales-creature and will after that be constantly drowned in junk mail. Don't say I didn't warn you! Torsten Dahlkvist ELLEMTEL Telecommunication Laboratories P.O. Box 1505, S-125 25 ALVSJO, SWEDEN Tel: +46 8 727 3788