The Bell 202 modem was an early (1976)

modem A modulator-demodulator or modem is a computer hardware device that converts data from a digital format into a format suitable for an analog transmission medium such as telephone or radio. A modem transmits data by Modulation#Digital modulati ...

standard developed by the

Bell System The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundr ...

. It specifies

audio frequency-shift keying Frequency-shift keying (FSK) is a frequency modulation scheme in which digital information is transmitted through discrete frequency changes of a carrier signal. The technology is used for communication systems such as telemetry, weather ball ...

(AFSK) to encode and transfer data at a rate of 1200

bits per second In telecommunications and computing, bit rate (bitrate or as a variable ''R'') is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time. The bit rate is expressed in the unit bit per second (symbol: bit/s), often in conjunction w ...

half-duplex A duplex communication system is a point-to-point system composed of two or more connected parties or devices that can communicate with one another in both directions. Duplex systems are employed in many communications networks, either to allow ...

. It has separate sets of circuits for 1200 bps and 300 bps rates. These signalling protocols, also used in third-party modems, are referred to generically as ''Bell 202 modulation'', and any device employing it as ''Bell-202-compatible''. * Bell 202 AFSK uses a 1200 Hz tone for ''mark'' (typically a binary ''1'') and 2200 Hz for ''space'' (typically a binary ''0''). In

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, Bell 202 AFSK modulation is used to transmit

Caller ID Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call is ...

information over POTS lines in the

public telephone network The public switched telephone network (PSTN) provides infrastructure and services for public telecommunication. The PSTN is the aggregate of the world's circuit-switched telephone networks that are operated by national, regional, or local teleph ...

. It is also employed in some commercial settings. In addition, Bell 202 is the basis for the most commonly used physical layer for the HART Communication Protocol - a

communication protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics (computer scien ...

widely used in the

process industries Process manufacturing is a branch of manufacturing that is associated with formulas and manufacturing recipes,

. Surplus Bell 202 modems were used by

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

operators to construct the first

packet radio In digital radio, packet radio is the application of packet switching techniques to digital radio communications. Packet radio uses a packet switching protocol as opposed to circuit switching or message switching protocols to transmit digital dat ...

stations, despite its low signalling speed. A modified Bell 202 AFSK modulation, a common physical layer for

AX.25 AX.25 (Amateur X.25) is a data link layer protocol originally derived from layer 2 of the X.25 protocol suite and designed for use by amateur radio operators. It is used extensively on amateur packet radio networks. AX.25 v2.0 and later occupies t ...

, remains the standard for amateur VHF operation in most areas. Notably,

Automatic Packet Reporting System Automatic Packet Reporting System (APRS) is an amateur radio-based system for real time digital communications of information of immediate value in the local area. Data can include object Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates, weather st ...

(APRS) transmissions are encoded this way on VHF. On HF, APRS uses

Bell 103 The Bell 103 modem or Bell 103 dataset was the second commercial modem for computers, released by AT&T Corporation in 1962. It allowed digital data to be transmitted over regular unconditioned telephone lines at a speed of 300 bits per second. ...

modulation. The Bell 202 standard was adopted around 1980 as the communications standard for subsea oil and gas

production control system Within supply chain management and manufacturing, production control is the activity of monitoring and controlling any particular production or operation. Production control is often run from a specific control room or operations room. With invent ...

s, pioneered by the then FSSL (Ferranti Subsea Systems Ltd.) Controls, a spin-out company from the former TRW - Ferranti joint venture in the UK. This modulation standard was retained until around 2000, when it was superseded by faster FSK and PSK modulation methods, although it is still utilised for extension of existing control systems that are already configured for this technique. The 202 standard permitted useful techniques such as multi-dropping of slave modems to allow multiple nodes to be connected to the host via a single modem channel. Other techniques have included superposition of signal on power conductors, and distances in excess of 80 km were achieved in subsea applications using these techniques. This has been enhanced through the use of

Manchester encoding In telecommunication and data storage, Manchester code (also known as phase encoding, or PE) is a line code in which the encoding of each data bit is either low then high, or high then low, for equal time. It is a self-clocking signal with no D ...

over the FSK link, to provide simple Modulo-2 RZ (return to Zero) bit error detection and suppression improvement over these long distances.

Related technology

The

ITU-T The ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) is one of the three sectors (divisions or units) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). It is responsible for coordinating standards for telecommunications and Information Commu ...

V.23 ''V.'' is the debut novel of Thomas Pynchon, published in 1963. It describes the exploits of a discharged United States Navy, U.S. Navy sailor named Benny Profane, his reconnection in New York City, New York with a group of pseudo-bohemianism, b ...

communications standard defines a similar modulation scheme.

References

{{Reflist, 33em
BELL202 Specification Interface
Modems

Related technology

See also

References