asterisk users - May 2010 - Bridging old system (ESI IVX E) with new Asterisk server

All:

My company has an existing ESI IVX E-class system with 45 phones.  I can 
add one more card, to expand it another 6 phones, but it's $8000, and 
then the system will have to be replaced.

I have the Asterisk server up and running, with 2 sip lines from the 
local phone service.  (Thanks to you guys, it is working great!).  I'm 
pretty sure this is the way the company will move, and I've have 
installed 8 phones for different people to test.

My question is this:  Is there some way I can bridge the two systems 
together, even temporarily?  So if Jake is at extension 120 on the ESI 
system, and Regis is at extensions 155 on the asterisk server, Jake can 
call Regis and vice versa.

I've pondered on this over the week-end, but don't see an easy way to 
handle this.

Thanks!

Eddie Mikell
Senior Systems Engineer
The Rimm-Kaufman Group

Assuming that the ESI system phones are SIP protocol, you should be able to
do "native sip" dialing like 155 at foo or 120 at bar.  You would set
up Regis in
asterisk with this line in the dialplan
Exten => 120,1,Dial(SIP/120 at esi,20,m)

In other words, you would treat the 45 ESI lines like softphones, where
Asterisk would talk to them using id at domain or id at address.

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Eddie Mikell
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 9:31 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] Bridging old system (ESI IVX E) with new
Asteriskserver

All:

My company has an existing ESI IVX E-class system with 45 phones.  I can 
add one more card, to expand it another 6 phones, but it's $8000, and 
then the system will have to be replaced.

I have the Asterisk server up and running, with 2 sip lines from the 
local phone service.  (Thanks to you guys, it is working great!).  I'm 
pretty sure this is the way the company will move, and I've have 
installed 8 phones for different people to test.

My question is this:  Is there some way I can bridge the two systems 
together, even temporarily?  So if Jake is at extension 120 on the ESI 
system, and Regis is at extensions 155 on the asterisk server, Jake can 
call Regis and vice versa.

I've pondered on this over the week-end, but don't see an easy way to 
handle this.

Thanks!

Eddie Mikell
Senior Systems Engineer
The Rimm-Kaufman Group

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What ports to you have available on the ESI ?

Analog Trunk Lines?
Analog Station Lines?
PRI?

You could bridge with maybe a small 4 or 8 port FXO/FXS device depending on
what you have available in on your ESI.

-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Eddie Mikell
Sent: Monday, May 03, 2010 10:31 AM
To: asterisk-users at lists.digium.com
Subject: [asterisk-users] Bridging old system (ESI IVX E) with new Asterisk
server

All:

My company has an existing ESI IVX E-class system with 45 phones.  I can 
add one more card, to expand it another 6 phones, but it's $8000, and 
then the system will have to be replaced.

I have the Asterisk server up and running, with 2 sip lines from the 
local phone service.  (Thanks to you guys, it is working great!).  I'm 
pretty sure this is the way the company will move, and I've have 
installed 8 phones for different people to test.

My question is this:  Is there some way I can bridge the two systems 
together, even temporarily?  So if Jake is at extension 120 on the ESI 
system, and Regis is at extensions 155 on the asterisk server, Jake can 
call Regis and vice versa.

I've pondered on this over the week-end, but don't see an easy way to 
handle this.

Thanks!

Eddie Mikell
Senior Systems Engineer
The Rimm-Kaufman Group

-- 
_____________________________________________________________________
-- Bandwidth and Colocation Provided by http://www.api-digital.com --
New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
               http://www.asterisk.org/hello

asterisk-users mailing list
To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
   http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

Eddie Mikell wrote:
> All:
>
> My company has an existing ESI IVX E-class system with 45 phones.  I can
add one more card, to expand it another 6 phones, but it's $8000, and then
the system will have to be replaced.
>
>   
That is worse than highway robbery.
I feel sure with some careful searching you can do much better for the 
card and the 6 phones.
Coupling the two systems together will not be well received by the users.
Just one opinion

If you really want to move to Asterisk, then do it, but it will take 
more than a weekend of careful consideration and testing!

John Novack

-- 
Dog is my co-pilot

I was in a similar situation with a Toshiba CIX PBX. I had 150 phones
on the Toshiba and wanted to switch over to SIP phones slowly. The
Toshiba already had PRI cards connecting to the phone company. I
purchased Sangoma PRI cards for the Asterisk server. I connected the
Toshiba PRIs to the Asterisk PRIs and used QSIG signaling so Caller ID
names would be correctly shown for internal calls. I connected the
Asterisk PRIs to the phone company.

To make calls between the two systems seamless I had to program the
extensions in both systems. We currently used 4 digit extensions. I
ended up reprogramming all the Toshiba extensions to 2+ext. Toshiba
has StrataNet which allows me to say extension x, y, z are available
at this remote node. I programmed all the 4 digit extensions in here.
This way when a 4 digit extension is dialed it will go to Asterisk
which then can decide how to handle the call. This was a requirement
as I needed everyone to be able to have a SIP softphone.

On the Asterisk side I setup a trunk and route to the Toshiba. For the
route I setup a pattern so I could dial Toshiba phones with 2+ext. I
then created all the 4 digit extensions and setup follow me for each
with 2+ext.

At this point you should be able to register a SIP phone and dial a 4
digit extension. It will use follow me to ring the Toshiba phone. From
a Toshiba phone dialing a 4 digit extension will route the call
through Asterisk and back with follow me to the Toshiba.

With Asterisk handling all the calls I can easily transition users by
setting them up a SIP hardphone and then removing the follow me.
Eventually as funds allow I can move everyone over to a SIP phone.
Then it is as simply as turning the Toshiba off.

Ryan

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 10:30 AM, Eddie Mikell <eddie at rimmkaufman.com>
wrote:
> All:
>
> My company has an existing ESI IVX E-class system with 45 phones. ?I can
> add one more card, to expand it another 6 phones, but it's $8000, and
> then the system will have to be replaced.
>
> I have the Asterisk server up and running, with 2 sip lines from the
> local phone service. ?(Thanks to you guys, it is working great!). ?I'm
> pretty sure this is the way the company will move, and I've have
> installed 8 phones for different people to test.
>
> My question is this: ?Is there some way I can bridge the two systems
> together, even temporarily? ?So if Jake is at extension 120 on the ESI
> system, and Regis is at extensions 155 on the asterisk server, Jake can
> call Regis and vice versa.
>
> I've pondered on this over the week-end, but don't see an easy way
to
> handle this.
>
> Thanks!
>
> Eddie Mikell
> Senior Systems Engineer
> The Rimm-Kaufman Group
>
> --
> _____________________________________________________________________
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> New to Asterisk? Join us for a live introductory webinar every Thurs:
> ? ? ? ? ? ? ? http://www.asterisk.org/hello
>
> asterisk-users mailing list
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
> ? http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
>