USER’S MANUAL
Appendix 8 – Ordering ISDN for the USA and Canada 333
Details, Details
Inordertocommunicateaccuratelywhatitisyouneed,wethinkyoushouldbefamiliarwith
thevocabularyusedtodescribeISDN.Aswithanything,forbestresults,ithelpstoknowwhat
youaretalkingabout.Foranin‐depthglossaryofterminologypleasecheckAppendix10
(Glossary)orTelos’websiteathttp://www.telos‐systems.com
.
Protocols
Inaperfectworld,allISDNterminalequipmentwouldworkwithallISDNlines,withoutregard
forsucharcanaas5ESS,DMS100,CSV/CSD,SPIDs,etc.TheUSAISDN“standard”hadbeen
evolvingforseveralyears.Thegoodnewsisthatithasnowsettleddown,withmostnew
installationsusingNa
tionalISDN‐1orNationalISDN‐2(seebelow).
Attheircentraloffices,thetelephonecompaniesuseAT&T/LUCENT5ESS,NorthernTelecom
DMS100,orSiemensEWSDswitchingequipment.WhileeachwillworkwiththeZephyr
Xstream,therearesomedifferences,whichneedtobetakenintoaccountwhenlinesare
orderedandused.Ea
chhasa“protocol”–thelanguagetheuserequipmentandthetelephone
networkusetoconverse(ontheDchannel)forsettingupcallsandthelike.
Therearestandardprotocolsthatallswitchesmayprovide,calledNationalISDN‐1(NI‐1)and
NationalISDN‐2(NI‐2)
.TheseprotocolswerestandardizedandspecifiedbyBellcore,the
technicallabjointlyownedbythephonecompanies.However,bothAT&TandNorthern
TelecomhadversionsofISDNwhichpredatedtheNI‐1standardandafewswitchesmaynot
beenupgradedtothenewformat.Inthatcaseyouwouldneedtouseoneoftheolder
"custo
m"protocols.
ThereisalsoanewerNI‐2standard,butitisdesignedtobecompatiblewithNI‐1forallofthe
basicfunctionsandthereforeisacceptabletodevicesuchastheZephyrthatuseNI‐1.
SPIDs
ServiceProfileIdentification(SP
ID)numbersarerequiredinallbutoneoftheAT&Tprotocols.
Thesenumbersaregiventotheuserbythephonecompanyandmustbeenteredcorrectlyinto
theZephyrXstreaminorderfortheconnectiontofunction.SPIDsusuallyconsistofthephone
numberplusafewprefixorsuffixdigits(itmayormaynoti
ncludetheareacode).Thereis
frequentconfusionbetweenphonenumbersandSPIDs,evenamongTelcopersonnel.While
theSPIDfrequentlyincludesthecorrespondingphonenumber,thisisnotnecessarilythecase.
TheintentionoftheSPIDistoallowtheTelcoequipmenttoauto
maticallyadapttovarioususer
requirements,bysensingdifferentSPIDsfromeachtypeorconfigurationofuserterminal.
Noneofthismatterswithourapplication,butwemustentertheSPIDsnevertheless.BellSouth
hasproposed,andmostoftheothertelephonecompanieshaveagreedtoimplement,a
standardizedSPIDfornewinstallations.Thishasbee
nimplementedbymostTelcos.The
standardisareacode+phonenumber+0101(XXXYYYZZZZ0101).SeeAppendix4foralistofSPID
formatsusedbytheTelcospriortothestandard.
UnlessyouareusingtheAT&TPTPprotocol,yourTelcoservicerepresentativeshouldgiveyou
oneSPIDforeachBc
hannelyouorder.Don’tletthephonecompanyinstallerleavewithout