[Asterisk-Users] PRI for Data and Voice

[Peter Svensson]

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005, David Norton wrote:

> Currently I only have 1 PRI which I am using for dial-in customers. The line
> is connected to a Portmaster3. I have never used more than 10 concurrent
> channels. The calls can be both analog or ISDN. It would be a waste to order
> another PRI for my Asterisk box. Is there any way of splitting a PRI into 2
> PRI's of 15 channels each, or plugging the PRI into the * box and it send
> the data calls to the portmaster, or handles them itself?

Off the top of my head I can think of a few solutions:

 * Use a multiport T1 zapata card (TE405P or TE410P) and connect your 
   systems this way:
         PSTN  -PRI-  Asterisk  -PRI-  Portmaster
                         \
                          ---lan--- voip stuff
   With suitable parameters to the Dial application in Asterisk 
   the forwarded calls will be passed transparently between the 
   interfaces. This is similar to how we handle isdn data calls.

 * The zapata driver can handle digital but not analog ppp connections
   in the driver. If you wanted to you could use the above solution but
   have the Asterisk box handle the digital data calls. Not much is 
   gained since you still need the Portmaster for the analog data calls.

 * Use a pri card with an on board DSP in the Asterisk box. The so called
   "active" isdn cards are usually so equipped. Cards in this category are 
   the Eicon Diva Server T1/PRI cards (or the E1 equivalent) and probably
   more. I think they all interface to Asterisk via CAPI.

 * Buy a box with a dedicated box that does both VoIP and data call 
   termination and interface to Asterisk via VoIP.

Peter