Concept for a Low Cost ISDN-LAN/WAN Infrastructure

Building an up-do-date information technology (IT) infrastructure is one of the key issues in supporting both the technological and the economical advancement of developing countries. Several concepts promise to meet the special requirements arising, when applying them to the telecommunication infrastructure of these countries. With its ability to be applied to an existing copper-based public switched telephone network (PSTN), the integrated services digital network (ISDN) [1] could be a model which evolves into a state-of-the-art communication technology without high investments. This paper presents a concept for a low cost local area network(LAN) and wide area network(WAN) solution. Based on experiences made when using ISDN to build an internet-based LAN/WAN infrastructure in an educational environment, a terrestrial communication structure easily applicable to developing countries is proposed. Integration of directional radio systems and satellite links like very small aperture terminals (VSAT) needed to span large distances without terrestrial infrastructure are discussed.