A ring down conference is used for bringing a group of first responders into an audio conference very quickly. Traditional ring down conferencing equipment makes use of analog FXS ports. For example such a system may be deployed at an airport or an Air Force Base. These systems are also called CrashNet Emergency Conferencing systems. The emergency ring down phones are clearly designated and located in specific areas. A person wanting a ring down conference simply has to go ‘off-hook’ on one such phone. The conference bridge detects the off hook and then immediately rings other phones connected to the bridge – hence the term ring down. As people pick up other phones they are placed into a conference with the initiator.

XOP Networks has extended the ring down bridging concept to VoIP based networks. It’s  <strong>SIP/VoIP based Ring Down bridge</strong> (Enhanced Firebar application running on SIP based USN) works in conjunction with an IP PBX. A person can go off-hook on pre-designated IP extension. The IP PBX will be programmed to send a SIP INVITE (equivalent to seeing an off-hook in the analog world) towards the XOP bridge. Based on that message the XOP equipment will immediately ring other pre-designated IP phones and upon off-hook place people into an audio conference.

Tags: crashnet emergency conference, SIP based Ring Down Conference

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 12:06 pm and is filed under Audio Conferencing, Firebar Conferencing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.