Asterisk权威指南/附录A 理解电话技术

In this appendix, we are going to talk about some of the technologies of the traditional telephone network—especially those that people most commonly want to connect to Asterisk. (We’ll discuss Voice over IP in Appendix B.)

While tomes could be written about the technologies in use in telecom networks, the material included here was chosen based on our experiences in the community, which helped us to define the specific items that might be most useful. Although this knowl- edge may not be strictly required in order to configure your Asterisk system, it will be of great benefit when interconnecting to systems (and talking with people) from the world of traditional telecommunications.

Analog Telephony

The purpose of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is to establish and maintain audio connections between two endpoints in order to carry speech.

Although humans can perceive sound vibrations in the range of 20–20,000 Hz,* most of the sounds we make when speaking tend to be in the range of 250–3,000 Hz. Since the purpose of the telephone network is to transmit the sounds of people speaking, it was designed with a bandwidth of somewhere in the range of 300–3,500 Hz. This limited bandwidth means that some sound quality will be lost (as anyone who’s had to listen to music on hold can attest to), especially in the higher frequencies.

Parts of an Analog Telephone

An analog phone is composed of five parts: the ringer, the dialpad, the hybrid (or net- work), and the hook switch and handset (both of which are considered parts of the hybrid). The ringer, the dialpad, and the hybrid can operate completely independently of one another.

Ringer

When the central office (CO) wants to signal an incoming call, it will connect an al- ternating current (AC) signal of roughly 90 volts to your circuit. This will cause the bell in your telephone to produce a ringing sound. (In electronic telephones, this ringer may be a small electronic warbler rather than a bell. Ultimately, a ringer can be anything that is capable of reacting to the ringing voltage; for example, strobe lights are often employed in noisy environments such as factories.)

Ringing voltage can be hazardous. Be very careful to take precautions when working with an in-service telephone line.

Many people confuse the AC voltage that triggers the ringer with the direct current (DC) voltage that powers the phone. Remember that a ringer needs an alternating cur- rent in order to oscillate (just as a church bell won’t ring if you don’t supply the move- ment), and you’ve got it.

In North America, the number of ringers you can connect to your line is dependent on the Ringer Equivalence Number (REN) of your various devices. (The REN must be listed on each device.) The total REN for all devices connected to your line cannot exceed 5.0. An REN of 1.0 is equivalent to an old-fashioned analog set with an elec- tromechanical ringer. Some electronic phones have RENs of 0.3 or even less. If you connect too many devices that require too much current, you will find that none of them will be able to ring.