asterisk users - Feb 2005 - Asterisk as a voicemail for a central office switch

I've spent the past several weeks reading up and playing around with
Asterisk while I've been waiting for an ISDN card I got on ebay to arrive so
I can really get to business. I'd just like to run my project ideaa by some
of you to hopefully get a little feedback. I aplogize if this ends up being a
somewhat long message.

In the Marine Corps we've somewhat recently started using Redcom IGX
switches in place of the proprietary (and ridiculously expensive) switches that
we've used in the past (well, and still do use). This opens the door to all
kinds of off-the-shelf equipment that we can interface with. My goal now is to
usefully integrate Asterisk primarily to provide voicemail and autoattendant
feature and probably to demonstrate various VOIP capabilities. Ideally I would
interface via a T1/E1 interface (might as well use E1 for the extra channels)
but since I don't want to shell out gobs of money for what is at this point
still a personal project, I'm opting for ISDN connectivity. One interface
for now will give me two channels but I'll get another interface when I see
more progress.

To my knowledge, the Redcom switch isn't specifically designed to be
interfaced with any voicemail systems. However, it can be set up to forward
calls on busy/no answer. This looks like it should be the ticket. I can set a
forward number for each phone to something like xxxxyyy where xxxx will just
tell the switch to follow a specific route to a group of ISDN channels. Then
it'll open an ISDN connection and pass on yyy (and whatever else is needed)
to Asterisk which could be used to identify the voicemail box somehow. I guess I
could set up any type of extension (SIP or IAX or whatever) and since nobody
would ever actually be connected to that extension, Asterisk would automatically
send it to voicemail every time. I imagine autoattendant could be set up
similarly.

My understanding of Asterisk is very.. limited at this point as I'm sure you
can tell. But does my above thinking seem doable? I imagine I'll figure it
all out eventually but any pointers that might speed up the process would be
greatly appreciated!


Matt
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* can be used in a CO switch.  As long as you can do DTMF interface.

 

  _____  

From: asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces@lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Matt Waterman
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2005 8:46 PM
To: Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
Subject: [Asterisk-Users] Asterisk as a voicemail for a central office
switch

 

I've spent the past several weeks reading up and playing around with
Asterisk while I've been waiting for an ISDN card I got on ebay to arrive so
I can really get to business. I'd just like to run my project ideaa by some
of you to hopefully get a little feedback. I aplogize if this ends up being
a somewhat long message.

 

In the Marine Corps we've somewhat recently started using Redcom IGX
switches in place of the proprietary (and ridiculously expensive) switches
that we've used in the past (well, and still do use). This opens the door to
all kinds of off-the-shelf equipment that we can interface with. My goal now
is to usefully integrate Asterisk primarily to provide voicemail and
autoattendant feature and probably to demonstrate various VOIP capabilities.
Ideally I would interface via a T1/E1 interface (might as well use E1 for
the extra channels) but since I don't want to shell out gobs of money for
what is at this point still a personal project, I'm opting for ISDN
connectivity. One interface for now will give me two channels but I'll get
another interface when I see more progress.

 

To my knowledge, the Redcom switch isn't specifically designed to be
interfaced with any voicemail systems. However, it can be set up to forward
calls on busy/no answer. This looks like it should be the ticket. I can set
a forward number for each phone to something like xxxxyyy where xxxx will
just tell the switch to follow a specific route to a group of ISDN channels.
Then it'll open an ISDN connection and pass on yyy (and whatever else is
needed) to Asterisk which could be used to identify the voicemail box
somehow. I guess I could set up any type of extension (SIP or IAX or
whatever) and since nobody would ever actually be connected to that
extension, Asterisk would automatically send it to voicemail every time. I
imagine autoattendant could be set up similarly.

 

My understanding of Asterisk is very.. limited at this point as I'm sure you
can tell. But does my above thinking seem doable? I imagine I'll figure it
all out eventually but any pointers that might speed up the process would be
greatly appreciated!

 

 

Matt

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