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Has anyone implemented VOIP as a carrier for emergency or elevator
call boxes? I realize that you could hook these analog ringdown
phones to an ATA, but I was curious about the Life Safety
requirements. What is necessary to bring VOIP up to the level that is
expected of a TDM switch?

Before I spend $80 of the taxpayer's money, is this issue addressed in
the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code?

Thanks in advance for any replies.
--
Roger Elmore
UTM Telecommunications

"Roger Elmore" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Has anyone implemented VOIP as a carrier for emergency or elevator
> call boxes? I realize that you could hook these analog ringdown
> phones to an ATA, but I was curious about the Life Safety
> requirements. What is necessary to bring VOIP up to the level that is
> expected of a TDM switch?

Cisco have some specialised 911 server stuff - dont know much more than that
as i am UK based.

Marconi build a class 5 IP softswitch with lots of emergency service stuff,
based around their older TDM public switch software. I believe many other
manufacturers are going in a similar direction.

you probably have to think about UPS for the Voip bits of your network all
the way to the local wiring closet - it may be easier to stay with analog
and power over the twisted pair.
>
> Before I spend $80 of the taxpayer's money, is this issue addressed in
> the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code?
>
> Thanks in advance for any replies.
> --
> Roger Elmore
> UTM Telecommunications
--
Regards

Stephen Hope - remove xx from email to reply

I don't have a great answer for you either. We are trying to address
this issue but switching from Centrex to VoIP makes people
question the reliability and availability of the IP phone service,
as well as location accuracy, when ironically enough our
Telecom staff admits to a 20% inaccuracy rate in their
current location data which is fed to Public Safety.

Anyway we are looking at a redundant routing core and
layer 2 switched environment with UPS for key
network electronics. We are looking location technology
for IP phones but we have yet to find a good solid solution.


Roger Elmore wrote:

>Has anyone implemented VOIP as a carrier for emergency or elevator
>call boxes? I realize that you could hook these analog ringdown
>phones to an ATA, but I was curious about the Life Safety
>requirements. What is necessary to bring VOIP up to the level that is
>expected of a TDM switch?
>
>Before I spend $80 of the taxpayer's money, is this issue addressed in
>the NFPA 101, Life Safety Code?
>
>Thanks in advance for any replies.
>
>

[JMyers]

the previous posts are all correct. After five years of working with VoIP and thirty years with elevator emergency phones, I've found the VoIP emergency phone service as simply too risky and recommend sticking with analog drops for just the emergency service--even with UPS power.

Elevator emergency phones, if provided, involve tremedous liability exposure. If provided, they must be fully ADA compliant and connect via a 'ring-down' circuit to a response center that will answer 24x7 within seconds of a call. So, VoIP is just a fraction of the total problem. Also, there's the problem of getting a super flexible CAT5e cable down the elevator traveler cable--which I have not yet found a solution for. Every elevator traveler cable I've ran across alway had an extra one or two pair shielded cable available for analog phone service, but super flexible CAT5e to support VoIP and PoE is a real problem. Also, I've searched and not found an ADA compliant VoIP elevator emergency phone! That means no handset, no dialing, manadatory visual connection indication, appropriate standard braile lettering and a timeout-disconnect feature.

Best of luck with your work and thanks for the sanity check! You are facing a problem that has, or will, hit millions of industry faciliity and telecom managers as they switch over to VoIP.

God bless our troops,
Jim