ESPA 4.4.4 to SMS or pagers

ESPA 4.4.4 is a standard protocol to exchange short messages between a PABX, nurse call system, fire alarm system, building control system, SCADA/PLC system or other device and an onsite paging system. It was developed in Europe in the 80's and despite its age it is still widely used in hospitals, nursing homes and in emergency response systems in companies.

Onsite paging systems are still the most reliable choice for local emergency messages but in a lot of situations sending SMS messages is a better option, at least for some of the messages. Diafaan SMS Server can be connected to a device that generates ESPA 4.4.4 messages and send the messages to SMS, wide area pagers or email.

Technical aspects of ESPA 4.4.4

ESPA 4.4.4 devices are connected to the paging system with an RS-232 or RS-485 connection. When an RS-232 connection is used, each device can send messages to one paging system but with an RS-485 connection it is possible to connect more than two ESPA devices in a bus structure.

To make it easier to connect a PC or server to an ESPA 4.4.4 device, Diafaan SMS Server supports a ESPA connections over RS-232 and over TCP/IP. The network connection means that is it not necessary anymore to locate the ESPA device and the PC/server in the same room, it is possible to use an RS-232 to TCP/IP converter, connected to the ESPA device, to make the connection to Diafaan SMS Server over a local network or even over the Internet.

ESPA 4.4.4 diagram

The Protocol Connector

Diafaan SMS Server Protocol Connector

ESPA 4.4.4 support for Diafaan SMS Server is implemented in the Protocol Connector, available in the basic- and full editions of Diafaan SMS Server. The Protocol Connector turns Diafaan SMS Server into an ESPA 4.4.4 paging system. Text- or numeric messages from the PABX, nurse call system or fire alarm system are forwarded to the GSM modem, SMPP account or wide area paging account.

Although ESPA 4.4.4 is a well defined protocol, the implementation can be different for different companies and devices. If you encounter problems with a specific device, please let us know and we will try to make Diafaan SMS Server compatible with your device.