ISDN signal distribution network

The author discusses the ISDN Staged Transport System (STS). The STS illustrates how an ISDN network can be used as a flexible distribution medium for directing real-time signals over a WAN to a staged transport server. Although the signal feeds distributed by the STS application are audio voice grade circuits (VGCs), the architecture lends itself to other signal types, such as video. Moreover, ISDN bridges and routers allow the real-time communications infrastructure to distribute bulk recorded signals as well. Finally, the multimedia wide-area connectivity provided by ISDN allows an entire signal processing operation to be remoted, with receivers, storage, and mission control all managed from a single site (or multiple sites) on the network. While the STS application uses the user to user information element (UU-IE) to control signal processing on the edge of the ISDN network, the UU-IE could just as easily be used on the interior of the network by switch adjuncts to augment dialed number routing with intelligent-application-based routing. When combined with the rich set of commercially available applications available on many ISDN switches and adjuncts, sophisticated signal processing, distribution, and management networks could be rapidly configured and deployed with relative ease.<>