Adtran to Cisco via Serial, please help...

[WeirdConnections]

My company has taken on a client and inherited an Intertel telephone system integrated with a data network.

There is no documentation, and nobody to ask. Nobody at the office knows what kind of circuits are coming in to the wiring clost. (We've hired Intertel to tell us what the switch is configured for).

It appears there is some kind of PRI that comes in to an Adtran Total Access 604...and then splits off via Serial connection to a Cisco 1700 series router. (We can't see the router's config and we are going to have to replace it.)

In addition, a t1 comes in to the Cisco 1700 from another smartjack.

So, I'm thinking that the Adtran is splitting off voice and data...sending (perhaps 12 DS0's to the Intertel swtich) and 11 DS0's to the data network.

My questions are:

1. If you were tasked with replacing these circuits, how would you go about it?

2. If I'm correct in saying that about 1/2 a T1 goes to the data network...is that most likely as a backup circuit or to add another ~700k in bandwidth to the Internet connection.

3. Assuming that I can get past any passwords on the Intertel switch, is there any reason why I just can't replace the t1 and merge the Intertel at the switch (like it is now for VoIP)...and not feed the extra circuits to the data network?

Thanks!

 

[SYQUEST]

You have alot of unknowns here. Before you do anything that would affect operations, you need to document what DS1 is doing what and what applications or services would be affected.

Where do the DS1s go? Are they point-to-point? Do they terminate at an ISP?

Do they terminate on a providers switch? Does the customer have any CSRs on the PRI?

For your CIsco router, if you don't have the PW for access, there is a proceedure to change the PW. Do a search on the Cisco Routers Forum for that info or see the Cisco website or documentation. For the Adtran get the docs or call Adtran tech support.

You really want to build a picture of the existing setup BEFORE you do anything! That is how I would approach this project.

Hope this helps!

....JIM....