Integrated Services Digital Network [ISDN]

Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN), originally "Integriertes Sprach- und Datennetz" (German for "Integrated Speech and Data Net"), is a circuit-switched telephone network system, designed to allow digital transmission of voice and data over ordinary telephone copper wires, resulting in better voice quality than an analog phone. It offers circuit-switched connections (for either voice or data) in increments of 64 kbit/s. One of the major use cases is Internet access, where ISDN typically provides a maximum of 128 kbit/s (which cannot be considered to be a broadband speed). More broadly, ISDN is a set of protocols for establishing and breaking circuit switched connections, and for advanced call features for the user. It was introduced in the late 1980's.
In a videoconference, ISDN provides simultaneous voice, video, and text transmission between individual desktop videoconferencing systems and group (room) videoconferencing systems.

ISDN elements

Integrated Services refers to ISDN's ability to deliver at minimum two simultaneous connections, in any combination of data, voice, video, and fax, over a single line. Multiple devices can be attached to the line, and used as needed. That means an ISDN line can take care of most people's complete communications needs at a much higher transmission rate, without forcing the purchase of multiple analog phone lines.
Digital refers to its purely digital transmission, as opposed to the analog transmission of plain old telephone service (POTS). Use of an analog telephone modem for Internet access requires that the Internet service provider's (ISP) modem converts the digital content to analog signals before sending it and the user's modem then converts those signals back to digital when receiving. When connecting with ISDN there is no analog conversion.
Network refers to the fact that ISDN is not simply a point-to-point solution like a leased line. ISDN networks extend from the local telephone exchange to the remote user and includes all of the telecommunications and switching equipment in between.
The purpose of the ISDN is to provide fully integrated digital services to the users. These services fall under three categories: bearer services, supplementary services and teleservices.

Consumer and industry perspectives

There are two points of view into the ISDN world. The most common viewpoint is that of the end user, who wants to get a digital connection into the telephone/data network from home, whose performance would be better than an ordinary analog modem connection. The typical end-user's connection to the Internet is related to this point of view, and discussion on the merits of various ISDN modems, carriers' offerings and tarriffing (features, pricing) are from this perspective. Much of the following discussion is from this point of view, but it should be noted that as a data connection service, ISDN has been mostly superseded by DSL.
There is a second viewpoint: that of the telephone industry, where ISDN is a core technology. A telephone network can be thought of as a collection of wires strung between switching systems. The common electrical specification for the signals on these wires is T1 or E1. On a normal T1, the signalling is done with A&B bits to indicate on-hook or off-hook conditions and MF and DTMF tones to encode the destination number. ISDN is much better because messages can be sent much more quickly than by trying to encode numbers as long (100 ms per digit) tone sequences. This translated to much faster call setup times, which is greatly desired by carriers who have to pay for line time and also by callers who become impatient while their call hops from switch to switch.
It is also used as a smart-network technology intended to add new services to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) by giving users direct access to end-to-end circuit-switched digital services.