Data Link Controls

Data Link Control is the service provided by the Data Link Layer to provide reliable data
transfer over the physical medium. For example, in the half-duplex transmission mode,
one device can only transmit the data at a time. If both the devices at the end of
the links transmit the data simultaneously, they will collide and leads to the loss of
the information. The Data link layer provides the coordination among the devices so that
no collision occurs.

The Data link layer provides three functions:

o Line discipline
o Flow Control
o Error Control

Line Discipline
o Line Discipline is a functionality of the Data link layer that provides the coordination
among the link systems. It determines which device can send, and when it can send
the data.
Line Discipline can be achieved in two ways:

o ENQ/ACK
o Poll/select

ENQ/ACK

ENQ/ACK stands for Enquiry/Acknowledgement are used when there is no wrong receiver
available on the link and having a dedicated path between the two devices so that the
device capable of receiving the transmission is the intended one.

END/ACK coordinates which device will start the transmission and whether the recipient is
ready or not.

Working of END/ACK

The transmitter transmits the frame called an Enquiry (ENQ) asking whether the receiver is
available to receive the data or not.

The receiver responses either with the positive acknowledgement(ACK) or with the negative
acknowledgement(NACK) where positive acknowledgement means that the receiver is ready
to receive the transmission and negative acknowledgement means that the receiver is
unable to accept the transmission.

Following are the responses of the receiver:

o If the response to the ENQ is positive, the sender will transmit its data, and once all
of its data has been transmitted, the device finishes its transmission with an EOT
(END-of-Transmission) frame.

o If the response to the ENQ is negative, then the sender disconnects and restarts the
transmission at another time.

o If the response is neither negative nor positive, the sender assumes that the ENQ
frame was lost during the transmission and makes three attempts to establish a link
before giving up.
Poll/Select

The Poll/Select method of line discipline works with those topologies where one
device is designated as a primary station, and other devices are secondary
stations.

Working of Poll/Select

o In this, the primary device and multiple secondary devices consist of a single
transmission line, and all the exchanges are made through the primary device even
though the destination is a secondary device.

o The primary device has control over the communication link, and the secondary
device follows the instructions of the primary device.

o The primary device determines which device is allowed to use the communication
channel. Therefore, we can say that it is an initiator of the session.
 o If the primary device wants to receive the data from the secondary device, it asks
the secondary device that they anything to send, this process is known as polling.

o If the primary device wants to send some data to the secondary device, then it tells
the target secondary to get ready to receive the data, this process is known as
selecting.

Select

o The select mode is used when the primary device has something to send.
o When the primary device wants to send some data, then it alerts the secondary
device for the upcoming transmission by transmitting a Select (SEL) frame, one
field of the frame includes the address of the intended secondary device.
o When the secondary device receives the SEL frame, it sends an acknowledgement
that indicates the secondary ready status.
o If the secondary device is ready to accept the data, then the primary device sends
two or more data frames to the intended secondary device. Once the data has been
transmitted, the secondary sends an acknowledgement specifies that the data has
been received.

Poll

o The Poll mode is used when the primary device wants to receive some data from the
secondary device.
o When a primary device wants to receive the data, then it asks each device whether it
has anything to send.

o Firstly, the primary asks (poll) the first secondary device, if it responds with the
NACK (Negative Acknowledgement) means that it has nothing to send. Now, it
approaches the second secondary device, it responds with the ACK means that it has
the data to send. The secondary device can send more than one frame one after
another or sometimes it may be required to send ACK before sending each one,
depending on the type of the protocol being used.
Flow Control
o It is a set of procedures that tells the sender how much data it can transmit before
the data overwhelms the receiver.
o The receiving device has limited speed and limited memory to store the data.
Therefore, the receiving device must be able to inform the sending device to stop the
transmission temporarily before the limits are reached.
o It requires a buffer, a block of memory for storing the information until they are
processed.

Two methods have been developed to control the flow of data:

o Stop-and-wait
o Sliding window

Stop-and-wait

o In the Stop-and-wait method, the sender waits for an acknowledgement after every
frame it sends.
o When acknowledgement is received, then only next frame is sent. The process of
alternately sending and waiting of a frame continues until the sender transmits the
EOT (End of transmission) frame.

Advantage of Stop-and-wait

The Stop-and-wait method is simple as each frame is checked and acknowledged before the
next frame is sent.

Disadvantage of Stop-and-wait

Stop-and-wait technique is inefficient to use as each frame must travel across all the way to
the receiver, and an acknowledgement travels all the way before the next frame is sent.
Each frame sent and received uses the entire time needed to traverse the link.

Sliding Window

o The Sliding Window is a method of flow control in which a sender can transmit the
several frames before getting an acknowledgement.
o In Sliding Window Control, multiple frames can be sent one after another due to
which capacity of the communication channel can be utilized efficiently.
o A single ACK acknowledge multiple frames.
 o Sliding Window refers to imaginary boxes at both the sender and receiver
end.
o The window can hold the frames at either end, and it provides the upper limit on the
number of frames that can be transmitted before the acknowledgement.
o Frames can be acknowledged even when the window is not completely filled.
o The window has a specific size in which they are numbered as modulo-n means that
they are numbered from 0 to n-1. For example, if n = 8, the frames are numbered
from 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,0,1........
o The size of the window is represented as n-1. Therefore, maximum n-1 frames can
be sent before acknowledgement.
o When the receiver sends the ACK, it includes the number of the next frame that it
wants to receive. For example, to acknowledge the string of frames ending with
frame number 4, the receiver will send the ACK containing the number 5. When the
sender sees the ACK with the number 5, it got to know that the frames from 0
through 4 have been received.

Sender Window

o At the beginning of a transmission, the sender window contains n-1 frames, and
when they are sent out, the left boundary moves inward shrinking the size of the
window. For example, if the size of the window is w if three frames are sent out,
then the number of frames left out in the sender window is w-3.
o Once the ACK has arrived, then the sender window expands to the number which will
be equal to the number of frames acknowledged by ACK.
o For example, the size of the window is 7, and if frames 0 through 4 have been sent
out and no acknowledgement has arrived, then the sender window contains only two
frames, i.e., 5 and 6. Now, if ACK has arrived with a number 4 which means that 0
through 3 frames have arrived undamaged and the sender window is expanded to
include the next four frames. Therefore, the sender window contains six frames
(5,6,7,0,1,2)
 .

Receiver Window

o At the beginning of transmission, the receiver window does not contain n frames, but
it contains n-1 spaces for frames.
o When the new frame arrives, the size of the window shrinks.
o The receiver window does not represent the number of frames received, but it
represents the number of frames that can be received before an ACK is sent. For
example, the size of the window is w, if three frames are received then the number
of spaces available in the window is (w-3).
o Once the acknowledgement is sent, the receiver window expands by the number
equal to the number of frames acknowledged.
o Suppose the size of the window is 7 means that the receiver window contains seven
spaces for seven frames. If the one frame is received, then the receiver window
shrinks and moving the boundary from 0 to 1. In this way, window shrinks one by
one, so window now contains the six spaces. If frames from 0 through 4 have sent,
then the window contains two spaces before an acknowledgement is sent.
Error Control
Error Control is a technique of error detection and retransmission.

Categories of Error Control:

Stop-and-wait ARQ (AUTOMATIC REQUEST QUERY)

Stop-and-wait ARQ is a technique used to retransmit the data in case of damaged or lost
frames.

This technique works on the principle that the sender will not transmit the next frame until
it receives the acknowledgement of the last transmitted frame.

Four features are required for the retransmission:

o The sending device keeps a copy of the last transmitted frame until the
acknowledgement is received. Keeping the copy allows the sender to retransmit the
data if the frame is not received correctly.
o Both the data frames and the ACK frames are numbered alternately 0 and 1 so that
they can be identified individually. Suppose data 1 frame acknowledges the data 0
frame means that the data 0 frame has been arrived correctly and expects to receive
data 1 frame.
 o If an error occurs in the last transmitted frame, then the receiver sends the NAK
frame which is not numbered. On receiving the NAK frame, sender retransmits the
data.
o It works with the timer. If the acknowledgement is not received within the allotted
time, then the sender assumes that the frame is lost during the transmission, so it
will retransmit the frame.

Two possibilities of the retransmission:

o Damaged Frame: When the receiver receives a damaged frame, i.e., the frame
contains an error, then it returns the NAK frame. For example, when the data 0
frame is sent, and then the receiver sends the ACK 1 frame means that the data 0
has arrived correctly, and transmits the data 1 frame. The sender transmits the next
frame: data 1. It reaches undamaged, and the receiver returns ACK 0. The sender
transmits the next frame: data 0. The receiver reports an error and returns the NAK
frame. The sender retransmits the data 0 frame.
o Lost Frame: Sender is equipped with the timer and starts when the frame is
transmitted. Sometimes the frame has not arrived at the receiving end so that it can
be acknowledged neither positively nor negatively. The sender waits for
acknowledgement until the timer goes off. If the timer goes off, it retransmits the
last transmitted frame.

Sliding Window ARQ

Sliding Window ARQ is a technique used for continuous transmission error control.

Three Features used for retransmission:

o In this case, the sender keeps the copies of all the transmitted frames until they
have been acknowledged. Suppose the frames from 0 through 4 have been
transmitted, and the last acknowledgement was for frame 2, the sender has to keep
the copies of frames 3 and 4 until they receive correctly.
o The receiver can send either NAK or ACK depending on the conditions. The NAK
frame tells the sender that the data have been received damaged. Since the sliding
window is a continuous transmission mechanism, both ACK and NAK must
be numbered for the identification of a frame. The ACK frame consists of a
number that represents the next frame which the receiver expects to receive. The
NAK frame consists of a number that represents the damaged frame.
o The sliding window ARQ is equipped with the timer to handle the lost
acknowledgements. Suppose then n-1 frames have been sent before receiving any
acknowledgement. The sender waits for the acknowledgement, so it starts the timer
 and waits before sending any more. If the allotted time runs out, the sender
retransmits one or all the frames depending upon the protocol used.

Two protocols used in sliding window ARQ:

o Go-Back-n ARQ: In Go-Back-N ARQ protocol, if one frame is lost or damaged, then
it retransmits all the frames after which it does not receive the positive ACK.

Three possibilities can occur for retransmission:

o Damaged Frame: When the frame is damaged, then the receiver sends a NAK
frame.

In the above figure, three frames have been transmitted before an error discovered in the
third frame. In this case, ACK 2 has been returned telling that the frames 0,1 have been
received successfully without any error. The receiver discovers the error in data 2 frame, so
it returns the NAK 2 frame. The frame 3 is also discarded as it is transmitted after the
damaged frame. Therefore, the sender retransmits the frames 2,3.

o Lost Data Frame: In Sliding window protocols, data frames are sent sequentially. If
any of the frames is lost, then the next frame arrive at the receiver is out of
 sequence. The receiver checks the sequence number of each of the frame, discovers
the frame that has been skipped, and returns the NAK for the missing frame. The
sending device retransmits the frame indicated by NAK as well as the frames
transmitted after the lost frame.
o Lost Acknowledgement: The sender can send as many frames as the windows
allow before waiting for any acknowledgement. Once the limit of the window is
reached, the sender has no more frames to send; it must wait for the
acknowledgement. If the acknowledgement is lost, then the sender could wait
forever. To avoid such situation, the sender is equipped with the timer that starts
counting whenever the window capacity is reached. If the acknowledgement has not
been received within the time limit, then the sender retransmits the frame since the
last ACK.

Selective-Reject ARQ

o Selective-Reject ARQ technique is more efficient than Go-Back-n ARQ.

o In this technique, only those frames are retransmitted for which negative
acknowledgement (NAK) has been received.
o The receiver storage buffer keeps all the damaged frames on hold until the frame in
error is correctly received.
o The receiver must have an appropriate logic for reinserting the frames in a correct
order.
o The sender must consist of a searching mechanism that selects only the requested
frame for retransmission.
What is a point to point network?
A Point to Point or P2P (Data link) provides a path from one fixed point to another. This will allow streamline
communication links between two points. Local Point-to-point networks consist of two nodes connected by the
internet & is usually delivered on a dedicated leased line.

P2P networks connect high-speed serial interfaces to a Channel Service Unit (CSU) at location A. The Channel
Service Unit provides the bond between the router and the leased line. An identical configuration is setup at location
B.

Options also include MPLS networks (Layer 2 circuit). This is a point-to-point Layer 2 connection that transports traffic
by MPLS or another tunneling technology on the ISP’s network.

Point to Point diagram

Project managers or network engineers make diagrams using network diagram software or a network diagram
template. It gives a visual representation of a network, showing various components and how they interact which can
include routers, hubs, and firewalls.

P2P network diagrams will usually show the computer network and access points including the hub or switch in the
office network. Many point to point network engineers will also create a network topology diagram to show the type of
topology that will be used on the point to point network itself.

This aids setting up the network & helps ensure the types of networks have the correct network devices, enabling a
successful set up.
The types of topology in Point to point networks
A P2P network uses different types of topology to connect two internet nodes via an internet connection. The nodes
will then transfer data to each other via a full fibre line.

A few small-scale examples of this are a two PC’s communicating via modems, a PC communicating with a printer
via a cable etc. In conclusion, Point to Point just means transferring data from one point to another.

There are other network topologies’ including:

· Bus Topology

· Star Topology

· Ring Topology

· Hybrid Topology

What are the advantages and disadvantages of a point to point network?

Some of the benefits your business get as a result of a P2P network include:

 Increased Productivity– A point-to-point leased line network ensures that all your staff have access to
important centralized files no matter where they’re working.

 Speeds– P2P usually use leased lines so the speeds are guaranteed & make it easier to transfer large
amounts of data between your sites.
  Control & Monitor– By having all offices using the same connection, it becomes easier to monitor data
usage across all sites. This helps to ensure that different requirements are met and exceeded.

 Priorities– Point to point leased lines allow you to priorities certain types of data making your connection
fast and reliable.

 Better Security– With broadband or SDSL your data is going trough a public network, this could increase
the risk of it being intercepted. But with point to points its your own private networks, so you can transfer
data securely with confidence. So, with this private circuit solution you do not need to worry about cyber-
attacks.

On the other hand, the disadvantages can be:

 Distance– Point to Point networks are normally only used for locations that are close together (Line of
sight). For geographically distant locations a P2P becomes more expensive, so other options would usually
be more suitable.

 Limited Connections– With a point to point you can only connect two sites, which can be a disadvantage to
bigger businesses who are expanding or who already have multiple sites.

 Fragile– If one node stops working within the point to point network then the whole system will stop working
and you’ll no longer be able to send or receive data. With other network configurations, when one node
stops working then you will still be able to receive and send data to the other nodes in the system.

The difference between point to point and multi-point line configuration

People often get point to point and multipoint confused. The main difference is that point to points are between two
points, whereas a multipoint is a connection between more than two points. In a multipoint connection, a single line is
shared by multiple points.

The channel capacity can be shared temporarily by every point connecting to the line. If points are using the line turn
by turn, then it is a time-shared line configuration. Whereas, with a point to point a connection is made between two
points via a line. Also, where the capacity is shared in a multipoint line, it isn’t shared in a point to point line.

The other differences are:

1. There is one transmitter and one receiver for a point to point system whereas there is one transmitter and
multiple receivers for a multipoint system.

2. The systems that require point to point connection includes telephone lines, digital cable, mobile phone
networks, rink line, fiber optics, and radio signals. Whereas, the systems that require multipoint connection include
shared networks, organizations, online working, offices etc.

3. Some examples of a P2P connection include Frame Relay, T-carrier, X.25. Whereas, some examples of a
multipoint connection include Ethernet, token ring, Relay, ATM etc.
 ISDN( INTEGRATED SERVICES DIGITAL NETWORK)

In this chapter, we will learn about the Integrated Services Digital Network. Earlier, the transmission of data and
voice both were possible through normal POTS, Plain Old Telephone Systems. With the introduction of Internet
came the advancement in telecommunication too. Yet, the sending and receiving of data along with voice was not
an easy task. One could use either the Internet or the Telephone. The invention of ISDN helped mitigate this
problem.

The process of connecting a home computer to the Internet Service Provider used to take a lot of effort. The usage
of the modulator-demodulator unit, simply called the MODEM was the essential thing to establish a connection. The
following figure shows how the model worked in the past.

The above figure shows that the digital signals have to be converted into analog and analog signals to digital using
modem during the whole path. What if the digital information at one end reaches to the other end in the same mode,
without all these connections? It is this basic idea that lead to the development of ISDN.

As the system has to use the telephone cable through the telephone exchange for using the Internet, the usage of
telephone for voice calls was not permitted. The introduction of ISDN has resolved this problem allowing the
transmission of both voice and data simultaneously. This has many advanced features over the traditional PSTN,
Public Switched Telephone Network.

ISDN

ISDN was first defined in the CCITT red book in 1988.The Integrated Services of Digital Networking, in short
ISDN is a telephone network based infrastructure that allows the transmission of voice and data simultaneously at a
high speed with greater efficiency. This is a circuit switched telephone network system, which also provides access
to Packet switched networks.

The model of a practical ISDN is as shown below.

ISDN supports a variety of services. A few of them are listed below −

 Voice calls

 Facsimile

 Videotext

 Teletext

 Electronic Mail

 Database access

 Data transmission and voice

 Connection to internet

 Electronic Fund transfer

 Image and graphics exchange

 Document storage and transfer

 Audio and Video Conferencing

 Automatic alarm services to fire stations, police, medical etc.

Types of ISDN

Among the types of several interfaces present, some of them contains channels such as the B-Channels or Bearer
Channels that are used to transmit voice and data simultaneously; the D- Channels or Delta Channels that are used
for signaling purpose to set up communication.
The ISDN has several kinds of access interfaces such as −

 Basic Rate Interface (BRI)

 Primary Rate Interface (PRI)

 Narrowband ISDN

 Broadband ISDN

Basic Rate Interface (BRI)

The Basic Rate Interface or Basic Rate Access, simply called the ISDN BRI Connection uses the existing
telephone infrastructure. The BRI configuration provides two data or bearer channels at 64 Kbits/sec speed and
one control or delta channel at 16 Kbits/sec. This is a standard rate.

The ISDN BRI interface is commonly used by smaller organizations or home users or within a local group, limiting a
smaller area.

Primary Rate Interface (PRI)

The Primary Rate Interface or Primary Rate Access, simply called the ISDN PRI connection is used by enterprises
and offices. The PRI configuration is based on T-carrier or T1 in the US, Canada and Japan countries
consisting of 23 data or bearer channels and one control or delta channel, with 64kbps speed for a
bandwidth of 1.544 M bits/sec. The PRI configuration is based on E-carrier or E1 in Europe, Australia and few
Asian countries consisting of 30 data or bearer channels and two-control or delta channel with 64kbps speed for a
bandwidth of 2.048 M bits/sec.

The ISDN BRI interface is used by larger organizations or enterprises and for Internet Service Providers.

Narrowband ISDN

The Narrowband Integrated Services Digital Network is called the N-ISDN. This can be understood as a
telecommunication that carries voice information in a narrow band of frequencies. This is actually an attempt to
digitize the analog voice information. This uses 64kbps circuit switching.

The narrowband ISDN is implemented to carry voice data, which uses lesser bandwidth, on a limited number of
frequencies.

Broadband ISDN

The Broadband Integrated Services Digital Network is called the B-ISDN. This integrates the digital networking
services and provides digital transmission over ordinary telephone wires, as well as over other media. The CCITT
defined it as, “Qualifying a service or system requiring transmission channels capable of supporting rates greater
than primary rates.”

The broadband ISDN speed is around 2 MBPS to 1 GBPS and the transmission is related to ATM, i.e.,
Asynchronous Transfer Mode. The broadband ISDN communication is usually made using the fiber optic cables.
As the speed is greater than 1.544 Mbps, the communications based on this are called Broadband
Communications. The broadband services provide a continuous flow of information, which is distributed from a
central source to an unlimited number of authorized receivers connected to the network. Though a user can access
this flow of information, he cannot control it.

Advantages of ISDN

ISDN is a telephone network based infrastructure, which enables the transmission of both voice and data
simultaneously. There are many advantages of ISDN such as −

 As the services are digital, there is less chance for errors.

 The connection is faster.

 The bandwidth is higher.

 Voice, data and video − all of these can be sent over a single ISDN line.

Disadvantages of ISDN

The disadvantage of ISDN is that it requires specialized digital services and is costlier.

However, the advent of ISDN has brought great advancement in communications. Multiple transmissions with
greater speed are being achieved with higher levels of accuracy.

ISDN Services:
ISDN provides a fully integrated digital service to users. These services fall into 3 categories- bearer services,
teleservices and supplementary services.
1. Bearer Services –
Transfer of information (voice, data and video) between users without the network manipulating the content of
that information is provided by the bearer network. There is no need for the network to process the information
and therefore does not change the content. Bearer services belong to the first three layers of the OSI model.
They are well defined in the ISDN standard. They can be provided using circuit-switched, packet-switched,
frame-switched, or cell-switched networks.
2. Teleservices –
In this the network may change or process the contents of the data. These services correspond to layers 4-7 of
the OSI model. Teleservices relay on the facilities of the bearer services and are designed to accommodate
complex user needs. The user need not to be aware of the details of the process. Teleservices include
telephony, teletex, telefax, videotex, telex and teleconferencing. Though the ISDN defines these services by
name yet they have not yet become standards.
3. Supplementary Service –
Additional functionality to the bearer services and teleservices are provided by supplementary services.
Reverse charging, call waiting, and message handling are examples of supplementary services which are all
familiar with today’s telephone company services.
Principle of ISDN:
The ISDN works based on the standards defined by ITU-T (formerly CCITT). The Telecommunication Standardization
Sector (ITU-T) coordinates standards for telecommunications on behalf of the International Telecommunication Union
(ITU) and is based in Geneva, Switzerland. The various principles of ISDN as per ITU-T recommendation are:
 To support switched and non-switched applications
 To support voice and non-voice applications
 Reliance on 64-kbps connections
 Intelligence in the network
 Layered protocol architecture
 Variety of configurations

Our previous article was an Introduction To The ISDN Protocol. This article dives a bit deeper by
examining ISDN Layers, Protocols & Components.

ISDN uses circuit-switching to establish a physical permanent point-to-point connection from the source
to the destination. ISDN has standards defined by the ITU that encompass the OSI bottom three layers of
which are Physical, Data Link and Network, see Table 1 below.

At the physical layer the ITU has defined the user network interface standard as I.430 for Basic Rate
Access and I.431 for Primary Rate Access; please see the ITU-T I.414 “Overview of Recommendations
on Layer 1 for ISDN and B-ISDN customer accesses” document on the ITU's website. ANSI has defined
the user network interface standard as T1.601. As already stated above, the physical layer uses the
normal telephone cabling as its physical cabling structure.

The ISDN B channels will typically utilise a Point-to-Point protocol such as HDLC (High-Level Data Link
Control) or PPP frames at Layer 2 however you can sometimes see other encapsulation such as Frame
relay. As you would expect, at layer 3 you typically see IP packets. ISDN operates in Full-Duplex which
means that traffic can be received and transmitted at the same time.

The ISDN D channel will utilise different signalling protocols at Layer 3 and Layer 2 of the OSI Model.
Typically at Layer 2, LAP-D (Link Access Procedure – D Channel) is the Q.921 signalling used and DSS1
(Digital Subscriber Signalling System No.1) is the Q.931 signalling that is used at Layer 3. It is easy to
remember which one is used at which layer by simply remembering that the middle number corresponds
to the layer it operates at.
Table 1

OSI Layer B Channel D Channel

3 IP DSS1 (Q.931)

2 HDLC/PPP LAP-D (Q.921)

1 I.430/I.431 or ANSI T1.601

Users requiring information on how to configure a Cisco router for ISDN dialup can read our How To
Configure ISDN Internet Dialup On A Cisco Router article.

THE DIFFERENT ISDN COMPONENTS

As part of the ISDN Standards, there are several types devices that are used to connect to the ISDN
network which are known as Terminal Equipments (TE) and also Network Termination (NT) equipment.
You also have Reference Points which are used to define the connections between the various
equipment that is used within the ISDN network.
TERMINAL EQUIPMENT AND NETWORK TERMINATION DEFINITIONS;

• Terminal Equipment Type 1 (TE1) are devices that can plug directly into an ISDN Network and
understands the ISDN standards

• Terminal Equipment Type 2 (TE2) are devices that predate the official ISDN standards and require
the use of a terminal adapter (TA) to facilitate plugging into the ISDN Network. These can simply be
routers that only have a serial interface on them and not an ISDN WIC. The terminal adapter can plug into
the serial interface and allow the router to be used to connect to the ISDN network. Another example
would be a Personal Computer (PC).

• Network Termination 1 (NT1) is typically a customer's device that is used to implement the physical
layer specification into the ISDN Network (or the NT2 device). This is the U Reference point that connects
through to the telco. This operates at Layer 1 of the OSI Model.

• Network Termination 2 (NT2) is typically the telco's device (it's very rare to see this at the customers
site) that is used to terminate from the customers NT1 device before traffic hits the ISDN network. This
operates at Layer 2 & 3 of the OSI Model and is an intelligent device performing the switching.

• Terminal Adapter (TA) is used to convert TE2 device signalling into signalling that is used by the ISDN
switch.

DIFFERENT ISDN REFERENCE POINTS

• R – This reference point is used to specify the point between the TE2 device and the TA device.
• S – This reference point is used to specify the point between the customers router and the NT2 device.

• T – This reference point is used to specify the point between the NT1 device and the NT2 device S and
T reference points can perform the same functions therefore they are sometimes referred to as an S/T
reference point. When we are plugging into the S/T reference point location, the function of the NT2 is
redundant since it's built in.

• U – This reference point is used to specify the point between the NT1 device and the telco's termination
equipment in the ISDN carrier network, apart from in North America where the NT1 function isn't provided
by the carrier network.

CISCO ROUTER OPTIONS

With Modular Cisco Routers, they come with slots where you can plug in various cards different types of
WAN Interface Cards (WIC). Cisco provide 2 different types of WICs for ISDN support. These different
cards provide either a ISDN WIC with the S/T reference points which plug into an NT1 device or an ISDN
WIC with a U reference point which has the NT1 built into the WIC itself.

Which WIC is required depends on your location and the telco that provides the ISDN circuit. For
example, in North America , they use a two-wire connection which is a WIC card with the U reference
point, having the NT1 built into it.