Rich Adamson wrote:
I'm within a couple of weeks of attempting this by interfacing asterisk
with a Siemens CO switch via gr303. All the physical components are in
place, just need to find some time to config asterisk, etc. This CO
switch already has something like 30 remote concentrators (from another
manufacturer) in solid production, therefore I have little concern with
the Siemens gr303 implementation; the asterisk code is unknown at this
time.
I'm in basically the same position with the 5E. I have 4 or 5 existing
303 interfaces in service. I've tested the newly provisioned interface
with other equipment with success. Connecting to Asterisk has been
fruitless so far. I have a config that doesn't generate any errors in
Asterisk, but the switch is unable to bring up the EOC.
One of the Digium employees recently completed a test involving looping
two T1's on asterisk (one interface config'ed as the network side and
the other interface config'ed as a concentrator). He was able to complete
calls via the loop which only suggests that base gr303 support for both
is in place. The asterisk code to interface with a remote concentrator
has been in place for over a year suggesting a rather solid understanding
of the protocol requirements. However, No one knows for sure whether
asterisk's gr303 support is or is not complete enough to interface with
CO switches, but there is also no known concerns (or even tests) either.
Sounds like we're both in a position to find out. I wonder if that
Digium employee is listening and could nudge us in the right directon
with some config examples? :)
It is known the asterisk gr303 support does _not_ include any maintenance
channel, therefore definitions within the CO switch (or concentrator) and
definitions within asterisk have to be manually mapped and maintained.
That's good to know.
Other day to day maintenance functions (eg, remote deactivation functions)
are obviously not supported either. Not sure if that will be any sort of
issue or not, or even how a CO switch reacts when it receives no response
from asterisk.
AT&T/Lucent implementations are notoriously picky about following spec,
so this may be an issue for me. I haven't attacked this with a protocol
analyzer yet.
I'm not a programmer, but its my understanding (which could be wrong) that
gr303 is a rather simple protocol (in relative terms). Its also my
understanding that Mark is one of the primary developers of the code,
therefore if there are compatibility issues uncovered, identifying and
correcting those issues may be time consuming due to demands on his time.
I do beleive that a solid 303 implementation could make Asterisk more
attractive, especially to ILECs. This is more of a curiousity for me at
this point, I'm happy using PRI.
Thanks for the info! I'd like to hear how your experiment with the
Siemens goes.
Jerimiah
Tularosa Communications
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