Basic Rate Interface

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What Does Basic Rate Interface Mean?

Basic Rate Interface (BRI) is one of the two levels of services provided by Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN). BRI is made for home and small-scale enterprise use. It consists of two bearer channels (B channels) and one data channel (D channel) for transmission of data. The B channel carries data, voice, and other services, while the D channel carries controlling and signaling data.

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Techopedia Explains Basic Rate Interface

ISDN has enabled the reliable transmission of data where multiple users can make use of the service lines at the same time. This network architecture is economical for small industries and homes where dedicated lines, modems and cabling expenses must be kept low. A bearer channel has a bit rate of 64 Kbps, whereas a data channel is 16 Kbps. Two bearer channels can be combined by channel bonding to give an aggregated data rate of 128 Kbps. B channels have dedicated bandwidth and transmit data via a formatted and circuit-switched channel, whereas D channels transmit data in the form of packets. The format of data communication in the D channel has become the basic type of frame relay.

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Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist
Margaret Rouse
Technology Specialist

Margaret is an award-winning writer and educator known for her ability to explain complex technical topics to a non-technical business audience. Over the past twenty years, her IT definitions have been published by Que in an encyclopedia of technology terms and cited in articles in the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine, and Discovery Magazine. She joined Techopedia in 2011. Margaret’s idea of ​​a fun day is to help IT and business professionals to learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages.