In a message dated 97-03-04 11:12:56 EST, you write: << My company currently makes a product with a standard daa pots interface. We would like to interface to the 3 or 4 most popular digital pbx systems (digital supervisory data + pcm). Is there any process to get this proprietary information? Any suggestions? >>
Well, I've been down this road a couple of times, and the landscape isn't pretty. The TE interfaces to digital PBXs are proprietary and non-standard. They are not even standardized among different terminal devices or different switches from the same vendor. Furthermore, I do not think you are likely to succeed in getting four different vendors to share their interface specifications with you. Basically, I think you have three possible options: 1) Select ONE vendor, and convince them that they stand to benefit if they cooperate with you in adapting your product to their system. This might work if the vendor wants to private-label your product or cross-promote it with you. 2) Tell your customers that they must use an analog port on the digital PBX. Virtually all digital PBX vendors offer analog line cards that provide a standard analog POTS interface. 3) Design your product to interface to the (analog) handset port on specific PBX station sets. This interface is not standard, either, but it is easier to reverse engineer than the digital interface. However, there are performance limitations with this approach. 4) Use an adapter device that accomplishes item #3 above. One that I have seen is the "Konexx" adapter. I think the manufacturer is Unlimited Systems in San Diego. I hope these suggestions are helpful, even though they are probably not what you wanted to hear. Joe Randolph Telecom Design Consultant Randolph Telecom, Inc.
