Microtel CellStat v.1.0 - Manual (Page 8)

MICROTEL CellStat
TM
6
Theory of Operation
How Does the Dialer Work?
This section provides a simple theory of operation by
asking a few questions about typical use of the dialer. The following paragraphs assume
the dialer is hooked up and running as described in the Installation chapter. The
Operation chapter provides the details that are missing from the discussion below.
What Happens when an Alarm Occurs? CellStat
TM
has a telephone directory of
up to eight people, answering machines, or pagers to call in the event of an alarm. When
an alarm occurs, the dialer begins to place a series of telephone calls over the telephone
line or built-in cellular module, or both, in an attempt to have someone acknowledge the
alarm.
The dialer reports the current alarm status when an outgoing call is answered. It repeats
the message several times while listening for a touch-tone being entered on the remote
phone.
How does an Alarm get Acknowledged? An alarm can be acknowledged in
three ways:
1) Entering the '*' key on your touch-tone phone during message playback.
2) Calling back the dialer immediately after it calls you (callback acknowledge). This
feature is necessary if the called party does not have a touch-tone phone.
3) The dialer will automatically acknowledge a successful call to a pager, answering
machine, or P.A. system if the telephone number is embedded with an auto
acknowledge code. (See chapter 5, Advanced Topics).
What if I’m not Home? The Call Progress Decoding features of the dialer allow it
to determine if the called telephone number is busy or did not answer. In either case, the
dialer will wait 10 seconds before going off-hook and placing a call to the next number
on the calling list.
When the dialer is off-hook, it has the capability to detect dial tone, busy, ringback, and
voice signals. This allows it to detect if a called party answered or not, thus reducing the
time to alert authorized personnel of existing alarm conditions. If a call is not answered,
or the called number is busy, the dialer will abort the call and begin calling the next
number on the system telephone list.
Will the Dialer Call Me Back? Maybe. The dialer has a snooze timer. When an
alarm is acknowledged, the snooze timer is started, and alarm calls for all acknowledged
faults are suspended. If a channel is still in alarm after the snooze period ends, then the
dialer will begin a new alarm dialing sequence (starting with the first number on the
telephone list).