[Asterisk-Users] experience with analog channel banks in E1 land

[Frank Sautter]

hi,

we are currently planning are large site which will migrate from an old 
siemens hicom pbx to asterisk.
it will be a slow migration, the asterisk server will be inserted 
between the telco E1 and the hicom. new phones will be sip ones.

the customer has several fax machines and analog phones (some of them 
have to be explosion-proof). around 50 analog ports in total are needed.
as we are in E1 land (germany) we have 64kpbs per channel. most 
(affordable) channels banks are T1 (56kpbs per channel i assume).
the questions are:
- could the T1 channelbanks be connected to a TE405P with two channels 
in E1 mode (telco and hicom pbx) and two channels to the channel banks 
(i think yes, but just to be shure)?
- will the faxmachines work (56kpbs-64kbps)? is asterisk translating 
this (btw. how do faxes work from europe to north america - the telcos 
have the same problem)?
- which signalling protocoll will be used on the T1 side? is asterisk 
translating this correctly?
- btw. where is the different bitrate coming from? is it 7bit T1 and 
8bit E1 or 7kHz and 8kHz sample rate?

regards
  frank sautter