Method and apparatus for interfacing telephone apparatus to a digital, analog or hybrid telephone switching system

Abstract

An adaptive interface method and apparatus for interfacing a telephony appliance such as an analog telephone, modem, fax modem, facsimile machine teleconferencing device, headset, VoIP telephone or non-compatible digital telephone to a digital, analog or hybrid telephone system, such as a private branch exchange (PBX). The interface device is suitable for use with a variety of PBX's produced by different manufacturers, despite differences in signaling characteristics between the PBX and an associated PBX-compatible telephone. The interface device is coupled between A telephony appliance and a PBX. In order to communicate the interface device 'learns' the characteristics of the telephony appliance and also of the PBX. This is accomplished by: determining whether each component of the telephone system is an analog or digital device; and, if the telephone system is a digital, monitoring communications between the PBX and the PBX-compatible telephone. Then, the interface device is configured according to each appropriate protocol by retrieving set of operational parameters from a plurality of such sets pre-stored in a memory device within the interface device. The learning technique allows the interface device to automatically adapt itself to variations in signaling characteristics between the PBX and PBX-compatible telephone sets among the different PBX manufacturers.