General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices with GPRS started to roll out around the year 2001. At the time of introduction it offered for the first time seamless mobile data transmission using packet data for an "always-on" connection, providing improved Internet access for web, email, WAP services, and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS).
Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) is a set of communication standards for simultaneous digital transmission of voice, video, data, and other network services over the digitalised circuits of the public switched telephone network. Work on the standard began in 1980 at Bell Labs and was formally standardized in 1988 in the CCITT "Red Book". By the time the standard was released, newer networking systems with much greater speeds were available, and ISDN saw relatively little uptake in the wider market. One estimate suggests ISDN use peaked at a worldwide total of 25 million subscribers at a time when 1.3 billion analog lines were in use. ISDN has largely been replaced with digital subscriber line (DSL) systems of much higher performance.
Network throughput refers to the rate of message delivery over a communication channel, such as Ethernet or packet radio, in a communication network. The data that these messages contain may be delivered over physical or logical links, or through network nodes. Throughput is usually measured in bits per second, and sometimes in data packets per second or data packets per time slot.
Digital subscriber line is a family of technologies that are used to transmit digital data over telephone lines. In telecommunications marketing, the term DSL is widely understood to mean asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL), the most commonly installed DSL technology, for Internet access.
The Primary Rate Interface (PRI) is a telecommunications interface standard used on an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) for carrying multiple DS0 voice and data transmissions between the network and a user.
The S interface or S reference point, also known as S0, is a user–network interface reference point in an ISDN BRI environment, characterized by a four-wire circuit using 144 kbit/s (2 bearer and 1 signaling channel; 2B+D) user rate.
The T-carrier is a member of the series of carrier systems developed by AT&T Bell Laboratories for digital transmission of multiplexed telephone calls.
Time-division multiplexing (TDM) is a method of transmitting and receiving independent signals over a common signal path by means of synchronized switches at each end of the transmission line so that each signal appears on the line only a fraction of time according to agreed rules, e.g. with each transmitter working in turn. It can be used when the bit rate of the transmission medium exceeds that of the signal to be transmitted. This form of signal multiplexing was developed in telecommunications for telegraphy systems in the late 19th century but found its most common application in digital telephony in the second half of the 20th century.
The U interface or U reference point is a Basic Rate Interface (BRI) in the local loop of an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), connecting the network terminator (NT1/2) on the customer's premises to the line termination (LT) in the carrier's local exchange, in other words providing the connection from subscriber to central office.
In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the physical layer or layer 1 is the first and lowest layer: the layer most closely associated with the physical connection between devices. The physical layer provides an electrical, mechanical, and procedural interface to the transmission medium. The shapes and properties of the electrical connectors, the frequencies to transmit on, the line code to use and similar low-level parameters, are specified by the physical layer.
ISDN Digital Subscriber Line (IDSL) uses ISDN-based digital subscriber line technology to provide a data communication channel across existing copper telephone lines at a rate of 144 kbit/s, slightly higher than a bonded dual channel ISDN connection at 128 kbit/s. The digital transmission bypasses the telephone company's central office equipment that handles analogue signals. IDSL uses the ISDN grade loop without Basic Rate Interface in ISDN transmission mode. The benefits of IDSL over ISDN are that IDSL provides always-on connections and transmits data via a data network rather than the carrier's voice network.
The public switched telephone network (PSTN) is the aggregate of the world's telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local telephony operators. It provides infrastructure and services for public telephony. The PSTN consists of telephone lines, fiber-optic cables, microwave transmission links, cellular networks, communications satellites, and undersea telephone cables interconnected by switching centers, such as central offices, network tandems, and international gateways, which allow telephone users to communicate with each other.
Single-pair high-speed digital subscriber line (SHDSL) is a form of symmetric digital subscriber line (SDSL), a data communications technology for equal transmit and receive data rate over copper telephone lines, faster than a conventional voiceband modem can provide. As opposed to other DSL technologies, SHDSL employs trellis-coded pulse-amplitude modulation (TC-PAM). As a baseband transmission scheme, TC-PAM operates at frequencies that include those used by the analog voice plain old telephone service (POTS). As such, a frequency splitter, or DSL filter, cannot be used to allow a telephone line to be shared by both an SHDSL service and a POTS service at the same time. Support of symmetric data rates made SHDSL a popular choice by businesses for private branch exchange (PBX), virtual private network (VPN), web hosting and other data services.
Throughput of a network can be measured using various tools available on different platforms. This page explains the theory behind what these tools set out to measure and the issues regarding these measurements.
For digital transmission, the Up0-Interface is an integrated services digital network (ISDN) interface used in private networks. It is derived from the UK0-Interface used in public networks.
Ethernet in the first mile (EFM) refers to using one of the Ethernet family of computer network technologies between a telecommunications company and a customer's premises. From the customer's point of view, it is their first mile, although from the access network's point of view it is known as the last mile.
The Cisco 2500 series routers are a series of 19" rack mount access routers typically used to connect Ethernet or Token Ring networks via ISDN or leased serial connections. The routers are based on a Motorola 68EC030 CISC processor. This line of routers is no longer sold or supported by Cisco Systems. They were superseded by the Cisco 2600 series, which has also reached EOL now.
The Um interface is the air interface for the GSM mobile telephone standard. It is the interface between the mobile station (MS) and the Base transceiver station (BTS). It is called Um because it is the mobile analog to the U interface of ISDN. Um is defined in the GSM 04.xx and 05.xx series of specifications. Um can also support GPRS packet-oriented communication.
