atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information QSIG

Zippo44 It is running 9005.6.84. The latest for 9005 I understand. Thanks for you input. I am starting to see a light now and should write a recap for all this.

QSIG sounds like a way to try to make your shiny new VoIP "PBX" work with your existing phones and equipment, providing the astounding feature of a message waiting light. It will not automatically make the new "PBX" take over with no work at all? I am being facetious.

No one in my org has any fantasy about not replacing all the telephones in the facility with the vendors wonderful, light weight stuff. As soon as anyone mentions working with the existing OFF SITE equipment, the vendors go in to a spiel about QSIG. None of them seem to listen about how it works now and all seem to just repeat "QSIG". Including their "technical" people.

Is there anyone who actually understands telephony working for any of the major PBX makers?

The person writing the proposal is having an extremely difficult time. We just do not know exactly what to ask.

How about "shiny new color display phones and the ability for those phones to call either a T1 tie trunk or a phone attached to a T1 FXO circuit"?

Maybe add to that "we don't care what features the FXO/FXS lines have other than the ability to receive and make calls"?

I will appreciate any inputs.

So what exactly are you trying to accomplish? The initial question was a general one about QSIG....are you trying to network remote systems? Install a new system beside the ROLM?

Steve

OK, I should have read through the responses better. Perhaps if you could write out exactly what you have at the sites, how many there are, and what you want to accomplish that would help. What do the remote sites need to do? Are they going to use local CO lines to make calls or do you want all calls going out through the main PBX? Maybe a combo of both? Do they need to have voice mail at the main PBX? Do they have local auto attendants or do they use the main PBX AA?

It sounds like you are trying to tie remote sites with analog sets into the ROLM. There are much better ways to do this technology wise now than QSIG . QSIG is usually used when there is no other option to tie two systems together. While most vendors support it, they do not do it every day and it may have not been done between two particular brands before, so providing a turn key "how to" or "can it do" is not always an option.

Steve

Plus, there is going to be NO "guarantee" to make the ROLM work in any way with QSIG or anything that is "not as designed" as Siemens would say. There is NO support from Siemens on that system as it has been discontinued for a looonggg time, so the installing company is on their own if things go off plan. About the only support that Siemens will give is to keep it working as it is, and then try to upgrade you to a OpenScape system either wholesale or through some networking scheme like you are describing....

Steve

So in essence you need a REALLY intelligent channel bank for the ROLM if I am reading this correctly. Quite honestly, Tadiran would fit this role to a tee (if I am understanding what you are looking for here). Come in T1/E&M and leave Qsig/voip/E&M/T1/OPX/FXO-FSX or whatever. But the devil is in the details.

Let's see if I can redefine what you are trying to do in a way that makes sense to all here.
1.You want an existing PBX to interface with a new PBX in the same room.
2.You want to do it with a standard T1 link, though internally generated and 'point-to-point' in the same room.
3. It seems as if you don't need to convert to PRI if both PBX's will handle T1's.
4. ALL you REALLY need/want is the ability for an extension in 1 PBX to be able to call an extension or use a trunk in the other PBX. Probably both ways.
5. Generally, this is quite easy to accomplish with the same brand of PBX. And usually do-able with any 2 PBX's of different brands.
6. Typically, one PBX will have an Extension number range in 1 "100's" group Like 100 to 199. The other PBX will have a different "100's" group like 200-299. This would usually be done with E & M tie lines and programming in each PBX to send the other PBX's extensions out a Group of E & M tie lines to the other PBX.
7.Q-SIG would only be needed for passing signals between PBX 1 to PBX 2 if you only have 1 VOICEMAIL system on ports in PBX 1 serving both PBX's.

OK, now comment and correct and let's see if we can help you get through to your vendor(s).

Guilty as charged about kind of changing topics! Thanks for the answers about QSIG.

The channel banks we are using on the FXS end are fine. We aren't using any on the FXO end, just a T1 from the CBX in to a digital cross connect system. More on that in a later post.

Thank you all for dealing with my frustrations. Thank you Lightninghorse for bringing me back to the main concern. I will comment on your post shortly.

What we have now:

ROLM CBX MODEL 70, 9030A PROCESSOR (Prom Rev 3.4) RELEASE: 9005.6.84 BIND DATE: 27/January/98 12 Megabytes.

The above is from the header when you log in to the CBX. It is not really needed for this discussion, just added information

My use of the term "CBX" is only because that is what ROLM called it. I am not sure "PBX" actually is the correct term for the proposed VoIP capable system.

There are about 400 ROLM digital phone lines. Most of the phones are RP624SLs.

There are about 200 analog lines. Mostly used for speaker phones, FAX machines and modems. Analog lines also support a dispatch center system.

There is a ROLM "phonemail" box to provide voice mail.

There are two PRIs, one to our LEC, one to an IXC. The ROLM does not support PRI, we use an Atlas Adtran 550 to convert 23B+D to T1 E&M.

There are 20 or so T1 tie trunks to other PBXs. They use ABCD 0000 on hook and 1111 off hook signaling.

There are about 400 "off premises extensions". I call them "OPX". The configuration is T1 trunk cards in the CBX connected to a digital cross connect system (commonly referred to as a DACS around here) with each DS0 being routed to a channel bank FXS card. The loops from the FXO cards are connected to plain old telephones. Since someone asked, the loops are generally about four feet. The channel banks are iMux 2000 using VF-16B cards. The ABCD signaling is common FXS/FXO. 0101/0101 on hook, 0101/1111 off hook.

What we want to do:

Replace the legacy ROLM with a hybrid capable of supporting VoIP where we have a network and the existing local analog lines, the T1 tie trunks and the T1 FXO/FXS lines. I will refer to the FXO/FXS lines as "OPX".

Potential problems and reasons for being concerned:

Analog modem lines since so many like systems we interface with have had multiple problems getting them to work.

Analog FAX lines, same reason.

T1 tie trunks. Every time the distant end of these trunks has upgraded their phone system we have had problems. In one case we abandoned the tie trunk. That distant end's PBX vendor has stated it is the problem with the legacy PBX or something like that. These are just standard loop start or ground start trunks, yet the new PBX at the distant end cannot emulate them.

T1 OPX FXO/FXS lines. Vendors so far state they cannot provide this type of signaling. One other PBX owner we work with actually replaced all their FXS cards in the outlying channel banks to be compatible with their new PBX. The channel bank vendor had to create a modified "FXS" card to be compatible.

Proposed interim solution:

Buy the new VoIP system. VoIP PBX must be capable of interfacing with PRI and T1 E&M trunks. It is going to happen, I am not against it at all. I would just like it to work with the above analog, OPX and T1 tie trunks.

Replace all ROLM digital phones with new vendor VoIP phones.

Establish T1 "tie trunk" from new PBX to existing CBX.

See if the above works for calls to existing lines from the new PBX. With proper programming of course.

Cross connect copper for analog lines to new PBX.

Connect additional T1s from existing DACS to new PBX T1 interfaces.

Cross connect some tie trunks and OPX lines to new PBX T1s

See if any of the above work.

Migrate existing tie trunks and OPX lines to new PBX.

This is lengthy but it is not just the normal change the local office to VoIP upgrade.

Since I am not familiar with the length restrictions here, I will reply to Lightninghorse in another post.

Good job saying that and I will try to comply.

1.You want an existing PBX to interface with a new PBX in the same room. Yes. as I tried to state in the last post, this is supposedly an interim solution since there are so many alleged potential problems. The "bring in the forklift at the same time as the vendor screws the new switch to the rack" crowd is scaring me.

2.You want to do it with a standard T1 link, though internally generated and 'point-to-point' in the same room.
Yes, a standard T1 tie trunk I believe.

3. It seems as if you don't need to convert to PRI if both PBX's will handle T1's.
Correct. Vendor's tech experts do scare me as when they talk about "standard T1 link" they always start talking "D channel". To me, if it has a D channel, it's PRI.

4. ALL you REALLY need/want is the ability for an extension in 1 PBX to be able to call an extension or use a trunk in the other PBX. Probably both ways.
Correct.

5. Generally, this is quite easy to accomplish with the same brand of PBX. And usually do-able with any 2 PBX's of different brands.
It should be. See my last post about tie trunks. The distant end not providing dial tone when accessing tie trunks can be worked around. The distant end not sending DTMF to the "legacy" switch and timing out does not seem to be my problem.

6. Typically, one PBX will have an Extension number range in 1 "100's" group Like 100 to 199. The other PBX will have a different "100's" group like 200-299. This would usually be done with E & M tie lines and programming in each PBX to send the other PBX's extensions out a Group of E & M tie lines to the other PBX.
The new PBX and the existing will be programmed for the same groups of extensions. 3000 in all. The new PBX will be connected to the LEC and IXC. If/when the new PBX proves not capable of supporting existing tie trunks, OPX lines, analog lines I want the fall back of being able to call them through a tie to the existing switch. It is absolutely imperative that these lines work with no down time. I realize this could require a lot of line by line programming. I hope if it comes to that the vendor's installers have to do the programming.

7.Q-SIG would only be needed for passing signals between PBX 1 to PBX 2 if you only have 1 VOICEMAIL system on ports in PBX 1 serving both PBX's.
If this is what QSIG provides, then it is a non issue. The OPX customers that have voice mail don't get a MW light now. They get a broken dial tone. We can deal with that issue.

Thanks again for dealing with me and my frustrations.