ISDN BRI Basics

This has been put together to give you a basic understanding of ISDN and what all the information means to us. There are certain pieces of information that can lead us to the proper configuration for the ISDN BRI unit. Some things that we need to know are:

Switch type
Provisioning
SPID's (not required for 5ESS point to point)
Directory numbers (DN) ComOS 3.7.2 or higher.

The switch type is the hardware, and the provisioning is the software running on the hardware and are not always the same. This is easily compared to a PC running windows 95 or OS/2, both are different operating systems and both can be run on the same type of equipment.

The SPID is the phone number of the line, with a prefix and a suffix which can be any number format that the telephone company assigns you. Here are some of the most common SPID configurations (numbers used in examples are 510-555-4242 and 510-555-4243)

1. Siemens EWSD

               NI-1          (Telephone company dependent)

Northern Telcom DMS-100

               DMS-100               B1      51055542421
                                     B2      51055542432

               NI-1                  B1      510555424200
                                     B2      510555424301

AT&T 5ESS

               NI-1                  B1      015554242000
                                     B2      015554243000

               5ESS(multi-point)     B1      0155542420
                                     B2      0155542430

               5ESS (point to point) (No SPID's, just DN's)

NOTE: The 5ESS point to point (ptp) will not only not have SPID's, it will have the same number for both B channels.

These above are only examples and can be in any different format, but these seem to be the most common. Once there is an ISDN standard there will be more consistency.