Direct Inward Dialing Number (DID or DDI)

DID (DDI) Background

Most businesses have several incoming telephone numbers used for specific purposes. For example customer service, sales, etc. Some have an individual telephone number for each user in the system. In a home setting on the other hand, each telephone number comes in on a different pair of wires typically. This is not practical in a business enviroment that has many telephone numbers.

DID (DDI) in the new VOIP World

Let's say you buy a phone line from Vonage or some other phone service provider who offers phone service over broadband. The number that they provide to you, in technical terms is a DID number. This is the number that they have assigned to you to connect you to the old PSTN Networks around the world. Any service provider who wants to offer a phone service over IP address, needs to buy DID numbers from his CLEC or any other large service provider like Level 3 in the United States or go to a consortium (company that will take large blocks from many providers and hand them out one at a time)

If you are using an IP PBX like Asterisk, and you want to connect yourself to PSTN so people can call your office, you can either 1) buy an Analog or E1/T1 card from Digium, or 2) buy DID number from a service provider like virtualphoneline.com, broadvoice.com or voicepulse.com that will then come to your IPPBX as a real phone line. Then you can use as your phone number, and route it to your IVR or direct extension. You can buy commercial DIDs from service providers.

Old Fashion Way: (PSTN WORLD)

Direct Inward Dialing is used when your PBX telco connection allows direct dialling to extensions within a PBX, using physical lines (or channels on a PRI) on a shared basis. DID service consists of identifying the "called party" by using DTMF or by digital means, before connecting each call. The service can be sent over an E&M Wink T-1 as DTMF and also as D-Channel information on a PRI.

On a PRI connection, the telco can send only the digits that differ between the group number and the extension (often four digits) or the whole number - it depends on the connection to the telco.

Why was DID actually Created?

So DID ("direct inward dialing") was invented as a way to re-use a limited number of physical phone lines to handle calls to different published numbers. In a business with DID, the phone company uses DID signalling to identify the number they are about to connect to the business's PBX. Historically, this was done by pulsing the last 3 or 4 digits of the number being dialed before connecting the number. The PBX would use these DID digits to switch the call to the right recipient.

In modern PBX's, typically, digital methods (example: PRI) are used to do the same thing, ie. supply the "called party" information. But many business's still have old PBX's which use the analog signalling I mentioned before. The type of telephone lines used for analog DID are different than regular home telephone lines. Usually, battery voltage is supplied by the business PBX instead of the telco. Also, the telco signals a new call by bridging the line instead of by ringing the line. The receiving PBX signals back that it's ready to take the call by momentarily reversing polarity of the voltage on the line (this is called "winking" the line)

Source : http://www.voip-info.org/

Direct Inward Dialing

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Direct Inward Dialing (DID, also called DDI in Europe) is a feature offered by telephone companies for use with their customers' PBX system, whereby the telephone company (telco) allocates a range of numbers all connected to their customer's PBX. As calls are presented to the PBX, the number that the caller dialed is also given, so the PBX can route the call to the desired person or bureau within the organization

Developed by AT&T in the 1960s, patterned upon the earlier IKZ service of the Deutsche Bundepost, this feature enables companies to have fewer lines than extensions, while still having a unique number for each extension, callable from outside the company.

By way of example, each extension of the PBX system may be assigned a seven-digit external telephone number, with a fixed four- or five-digit prefix. Someone who knows the internal extension of his/her correspondent can dial the seven-digit number and be connected directly to the person called, bypassing the operator or PBX auto-attendant.

This system is also used by fax servers. Instead of an exchange at the end of the 234 000 line, a computer running fax server software and fax modem cards uses the last three digits to identify the recipient of the fax. This allows 1000 people to have their own individual fax numbers, even though there is only one 'fax machine'.

When people give out their work number and say it's a "direct line", often what they mean is that it's a DID number.

   DID (DDI) and VoIP aka "Call Through"

"DID" numbers have particular relevance for VoIP communications. In order for people connected to the traditional PSTN network to call people connected to VoIP networks, DID numbers from the PSTN network are obtained by the administrators of the VoIP network, and assigned to a gateway in the VoIP network. The gateway will then route calls incoming from the PSTN across the IP network to the appropriate VoIP user. Similarly, calls originating in the VoIP network will appear to users on the PSTN as originating from one of the assigned DID numbers.

DID numbers can be purchased in bulk from a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier. There are also a number of DID resellers offering DID numbers for individuals and small enterprises (DID World Wide).