Integrating Asterisk with the phone system

Asterisk Asterisk Support
1

Hello,

This issue might sound very basic, but I need to have clarity in order to move ahead. I will explain my scenario in this post and let me know if what I’m trying to do makes any sense.

  • I have Asterisk1.8 installed on a clean Ubuntu10.10.
  • We have old phone systems(NOT SIP based) at our office and we’re planning to have an IVR system using Asterisk.
  • Basically, outside world calls to one of our office numbers and the IVR system has to respond.
  • Currently we are developing the dailplan (extensions.conf) and testing it by configuring SIP-based Softphones (Twinkle).
  • We are successfully able to receive calls to Asterisk from the Softphones.
  • Next task is to make asterisk work with the phones in the office.
  • We are planning on purchasing a PCI-Express card which connects to the T1 phone line at our office.
  • Next, we have to plug this PCI-Express card into the machine which has Asterisk.

If all the above makes any sense, what should be my next steps. I’ve been reading the documentation and I found out that I should make use of DAHDI. But I could not find proper steps on how to go about in my scenario.

Could anyone help me with providing any proper documentation/samples so that I can go ahead? If I can get any samples which could mimic my scenario it would be awesome.

Thanks in advance!
Ramachandra Rao Seethiraju

2

Howdy,

The Asterisk Book has a good section on using digital telephony cards with Asterisk:
astbook.asteriskdocs.org/

Just remember, that Zapata/Zaptel were renamed to DAHDI because of trademark issues, so when you see Zapata or Zaptel, think DAHDI. The same concepts apply.

The next version of the book, coming out sometime soon, will have that addressed.

Cheers.