On Thu, Jan 24, 2002 at 11:16:00PM -0800, Paul H. Gusciora wrote:
> Could you share with the group:
>
> what part of the manuals helped or were confusing?
Well, the parts of the manual for the following programs is OK:
423 (ISDN Port Type)
453 (SPID Assignment)
454 (DN Assignment)
The descriptions of what the following programs actually do is
just useless:
424 (ISDN Layer 1 Active Mode)
425 (ISDN Configuration)
426 (ISDN Data Link Mode)
427 (ISDN TEI Mode)
428 (ISDN Extension Multiple Directory Number)
429 (ISDN Extension Progress Tone)
(I still don't know exactly what this does, outside of being
used with ISDN extensions, which I don't have!)
Theses programs could use a lot more description about what the
choices are, and what those options mean, rather than just
saying something like "Point" or "Multipoint".
The manual doesn't fully define what kind of support the system
can do for ISDN. There are two things it can do, it appears:
1) Take ISDN lines to be used as CO lines
2) Use ISDN phone as additional extensions on the system
That fact that is supports #2 is why there is program #423, #428
and probably #427. To date, I don't think I've *ever* run across
an actual ISDN phone. I've seen scads of ISDN PRI and BRI gear,
but *never* an actual ISDN phone.
How you go about setting up the other parameters to make the ISDN
work was a huge amount of (very frusterating) guesswork. It doesn't
help that some of the "default" values for the switch don't work
with National ISDN-1, which is the only type of ISDN the Panasonic phone
system claims to support. (Of course, this cannot be true, since
folks in other countries have working ISDN, and it *isn't* NI-1.)
> which Cisco ISDN manuals helped your understanding of ISDN-BRI?
Actually, it was the piece of gear (a Cisco 776 ISDN BRI router) that
I was able to hook up to the ISDN line and see debugging information
on calls that were attempted on the ISDN line. The crucial piece of
information that I gained from this was that the DN number that was
being passed to the switch was a 7 digit number, not a 10 digit
number. I asked the phone person (Oh, it'll be a 10 digit number, I
think) and we've had mandatory 10 digit dialing in Maryland for
several years.
This was a great source of frustration on my part -- there are *zero*
diagnostics available on the Panasonic out of the box. I assume the
dealer magic pack gives some insite into where things are screwing
up. But it's completely a black box to the home installer.
The problem with the 7 digit vs 10 digit DNs was like this: I could
call out on the BRI line. I didn't get incoming calls on any
of the numbers assigned. The Panasonic apparently immediately
refuses the call and signals the 5ESS switch that Verizon is
running. But, the 5ESS doesn't give audio feedback to the caller that
the call has been refused. All you hear on your phone call is
an unanswered ring. I spent a great deal of time thinking the the
816-4 that I had got the call and just didn't ring the extensions
that I had programmed it to call properly. Actually, the problem
was that the call wasn't getting accepted at all, so no extension
was ever going to ring, regardless of how I had it programmed.
> Any other resources for understanding the LEC ISDN ordering process?
All I can say is don't believe a word about "multiple call appearences"
that your LEC will feed you. Certainly one of the more challanging
aspects of this process was finding a person inside of Verizon that
knew enough about ISDN to be able to describe what the choices for
ordering are.
When I first had this service installed, I had a single BRI, with
two SPIDs on it, along with four DNs on the line.
To make this mostly work, I had to change the programs like this:
Program 424: Layer 1 ISDN Mode -> Permanent (default)
Program 425: Access Mode -> Point-to-Point (defaults to Multipoint)
Program 426: Layer 2 ISDN Mode -> Permanent (default)
Program 427: TEI Assign -> Automatic (default)
(Along with the change from the 10digit DN to the 7 digit DN.)
I only had the switch like this for about two days before my second
BRI came in, which has more DNs (a total of 10 DNs now, across
the two BRIs). I had to change the programs to be like this:
Program 424: Layer 1 ISDN Mode -> Permanent (default)
Program 425: Access Mode -> Point-to-Point (defaults to Multipoint)
Program 426: Layer 2 ISDN Mode -> Call (defaults to Permanent)
Program 427: TEI Assign -> Automatic (default)
It's not clear to me whether #426 was really set correctly or not
when I only had the single BRI. In the situation I'm in now, I
definately need to have it set to "Call".
I have a hunt group from Verizon that starts on one of the DNs on
the first BRI, goes to a second DN on the first BRI, then goes to
a DN on the second BRI and finally a last DN on the second BRI.
In that manner, I get the primary business line to attempt to use
all four B channels that I have available, so I can take up to four
calls on the main number at one time. One interesting thing about
that is the DN that is presented on the call is that of the DN of
the line it ultimately comes in on. It doesn't preserve the DN of
the original number called when it goes through the hunt group.
Verizon has been forced into the stance that ISDN is only good for
use as a data networking system. Telling them that you want to do
voice over a BRI is pretty alien to them. (A far cry from when I first
attempted to get ISDN data working back in 1995 -- when they were
still pushing it for just voice applications.) Ordering from them
is a frustrating process since they want to talk about ISDN in
terminology that is very different than I learned growing up the
in the data networking world.
I've only got one problem with the system that I know of.
Occasionally, an incoming call will ring, someone will go to pickup
the call, and the switch drops the calls immediately. The person
on the other end of the call just hears ringing forever. I suspect
the switch is ringing the extension and then refusing the call
back to the 5ESS. Of course, I have no way of diagnosing this
further. Anybody got any ideas?
-Kurt
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