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Dial Plan
 

The NBX system’s dial plan determines how the system handles calls. It defines the set of destinations that the system can reach, how to get to these destinations, and which telephone numbers to dial to reach these destinations. The Administrator's Guide Dial Plan section provides information about understanding, developing, and managing the dial plan. It covers the following topics.

Dial Plan Concepts and Overview
The dial plan configuration file is an ASCII text file that implements the dial plan and specifies pretranslation (digit manipulation). The system is shipped with several default dial plan configuration files, typically, a 3-digit and a 4-digit file for each supported country.

The dial plan configuration file includes several tables:

  • Internal — Must be table ID 1
  • Incoming — Must be table ID 2
  • Least Cost Routing — Must be table ID 3
  • Routes
  • Pretranslators

You can create additional tables if necessary. Each dial plan table consists of a series of entries, each of which includes a sequence of digits and the action to be performed by the NBX system in response to sending or receiving those digits.

Dial Plan Tables
Dial plan tables contain information that controls how the system routes calls. Each dial plan configuration file consists of at least three dial plan tables.

Dial Plan Pretranslators
 The system uses pretranslators to modify digit sequences of incoming or outgoing calls. On incoming calls, pretranslators can map the entire dialed number (including area code) to an internal extension number. For example, an external party dials 978-555-0101 to reach the person on extension 101. Pretranslators ensure that the proper digits are mapped to the correct extension number.

Managing the Dial Plan Configuration File
This section describes the dial plan configuration file and how to manage it. From the Operations tab of the Dial Plan window, you can perform these tasks:

  • Accessing the Dial Plan
  • Creating Dial Plan Configuration Files
  • Importing and Exporting Dial Plan Configuration Files
  • Importing a User-Defined Dial Plan
  • Exporting (Saving) a Dial Plan Configuration File
  • Testing a Dial Plan
  • Generating a Dial Plan Report
  • Modifying a Dial Plan Configuration File

Outdialing Prefix Settings
A telephone user can look up a call in the call logs (Missed Calls, Answered Calls, and Dialed Calls) using the telephone display panel, select a telephone number from any of the logs, and redial it.

Managing Extensions
This section describes how to add, change, and manage extensions. The NBX system establishes connections between extension numbers.
The concept of an extension applies to more than just telephones. Extensions are also assigned to NBX applications such as Call Park zones, Auto Attendants, hunt groups, Line Card ports, voice mail ports, and virtual devices such as the pcXset™ PC soft telephone Client and the ConneXtions H.323 Gateway.

Managing Extension Lists
An extension list contains extension numbers that are assigned and dedicated to specific dial tone facilities or to specific NBX applications (voice mail, Auto Attendant, and so on), or both. You can add an extension list to define a subset of devices such as fax machines.

Managing Dial Plan Tables
The NBX system associates a normal dial plan table and a Least Cost Routing table with each device. Devices include, for example, telephones, Analog Line Card ports, or Digital Line Card ports. A telephone that has no table assigned does not have permission to dial. A telephone without an assigned table is flagged in Reports.

Managing Dial Plan Pretranslators
 Pretranslators are tables in the dial plan configuration file. Each entry in a pretranslator table contains a string of one or more digits that are
compared to incoming or outgoing digits. When the digits match an entry in the table, the NBX system performs the associated pretranslator operations.

Configuring the Dial Plan for the 4ESS Protocol (T1)
 The 4ESS protocol, used on T1 Digital Line Cards that are configured for PRI operation, requires specific configuration entries in the NBX system dial plan. If you purchase the 4ESS protocol and SDN (Software Defined Network) service from your long-distance carrier, you must make dial plan changes similar to those outlined in “Configuring the Dial Plan for Software-Defined Network Calls." If you want to make long distance calls or international long distance calls using the 4ESS protocol, you must make dial plan changes similar to those outlined in “Configuring the Dial Plan for North American Long Distance” and “Configuring the Dial Plan for International Long Distance."

Overview of Voice Profile for Internet Mail
 With Voice Profile for Internet Mail (VPIM), users on one NBX system can send voice mail to a user on another NBX or VPIM-compliant system. VPIM is an optional component that requires a license, which appears in the NBX NetSet Licenses dialog as Internet Voice Messaging License.

Configuring the Dial Plan for VPIM
 To fully define a VPIM connection between two NBX systems, you must create entries in the dial plan for the following items:

  • The digit sequence that a telephone user must dial to access the VPIM connection
  • The route number that is used to access the other NBX system
  • The extension list to which the VPIM route belongs
  • The operations that must be performed on the dialed digits in order to create the appropriate outgoing digit sequence

Configuring VPIM Parameters
Using the NBX NetSet utility, you can configure several VPIM control parameters, check the status of the VPIM queues, and obtain statistics on recent VPIM activity.

Overview of Virtual Tie Lines
A Virtual Tie Line (VTL) provides a way to make calls between NBX system sites that are separated geographically but tied together by a Wide Area Network (WAN). VTLs are a licensed feature of the NBX systems.

  • NBX V3000 — support for 48 simultaneous VTL connections
  • SuperStack 3 NBX — support for 48 simultaneous VTL connections
  • NBX 100 — support for 8 simultaneous VTL connections

On any NBX system, a VTL connection can be used either for an incoming VTL call from any site or for an outgoing VTL call to any site. A VTL connection is not dedicated in the same way as a physical tie line, which always connects the same pair of sites.

How to Configure a Virtual Tie Line
Configuring a working VTL connection between two systems involves:

  • License Installation
  • Dial Plan Configuration
  • Updating the Extension List
  • Adding VTL Devices to the Pretranslators (Optional)
  • Verification of the Virtual Tie Line

You can also enable silence suppression and different levels of audio compression for your VTL calls.

Call Rerouting for Virtual Tie Lines
To enable the NBX system to better deal with network problems, you can configure the system dial plan so that some virtual tie line (VTL) calls can be rerouted if a VTL connection cannot be made.

Managing Existing Virtual Tie Lines
After VTLs are installed and you have verified that they are working properly, you can manage them using the NBX NetSet utility. There are NBX NetSet utility functions for:

  • Modifying a Virtual Tie Line Name
  • Viewing and Resetting Virtual Tie Line Statistics
  • Enabling Audio Compression for VTL Calls
  • Enabling Silence Suppression on VTL Calls

Using a VTL Password
To allow users on one NBX system to place VTL calls to another NBX system and then place long-distance (toll) calls from that location (a practice called ‘hop off’), you can configure a VTL password. When an NBX system receives a VTL call from a user on another NBX system, it can allow that user to make long-distance calls if the incoming VTL call contains the password. Otherwise, such calls are not allowed. If you set up two classes of VTL calls (with and without passwords), you can permit or disallow hop off.

Dial Plan Configuration File Commands
This section provides the syntax and description of each command used to create the information in the dial plan configuration file.

Sample Solutions Using Dial Plan Configuration File Commands
This section describes several requirements that a customer might have, and for each one, provides a sample solution. An explanation follows each step in the solution.

 

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