How to configure on TMS to make schedule conference with external ISDN endpoint?

[Bo Bo Aung]

Dear All,

I have some issue on TMS schedule conference with external ISDN endpoint.

I have VCSC,VCSE,ISDNGW, TMS and some IP endpoints.

All devices are registed to TMS.

Outgoing video ISDN call prefix is 8 and audio call prefix is 9.

I set following configuration in TMS to make a schedule conference for ISDN call out

Booking > New conference and set start time/ end time ... etc.,

Then click on Add Participant

I selected one of my registered IP endpoint and then click on External

Then I set following for ISDN call out

Direction: dial out

Protocol: IP/H323

Type: video

Number:868584123 (prefix 8 follow by number)

Then click on OK.

When schedule reach to pin point internal IP endpoint tried to call out to external ISDN endpoint but call cannot go through.

But I can make direct ISDN call from IP endpoint to external ISDN endpoint via ISDNGW by using same calling method (868584123), call can go through.

I hope anyone can help me my problem.

Thanks in advance

[Jens Didriksen]

Would be very helpful to know TMS version and type of end-point and software version of the end-point you are scheduling to call out from.

We had a similar issue some time ago if the calls was scheduled from a C-series system, but have not seen it since TMS 13.2 and TC5.x - currently on TMS 14.1.1 and TC5.1.6

Edit: We saw this problem despite having correct IP/ISDN zones configured in TMS, and only C-series type of systems running certain software revisions were affected, MXPs etc worked fine.

/jens

[Saurabh Gupta]

Hi Bo Bo,

This is very common problem faced by everybody who is using the TMS for scheduling the conferences and using Dial In and Dial out Participants.

The Solution to your problem would be to configure IP and ISDN Zones on your TMS .

This would allow to add your IP endpoints under IP Zone and ISDN Endpoint on ISDN Zone.

So, when you would create a conference using ISDN Endpoint, it would automatically create a routing of ISDN Endpoints and would be able to add them using correct prefixes.

Please try my suggestion and let me know the results.

Thanks,

Saurabh

[conie saga]

Hi Bo Bo,

I am in same problem situation.

We have TMS 14.5 with TP 320/TP Conductor/CUCM 10.5/VCS X8.2.2/ISDN GW and End Points SX20 (registered into CUCM as SIP) MXP 3000/6000 (registered into VCS as H.323)

How did you fix your problem ? would appreciate if u can share

Regards,

Conie

[Lawrence James]

see the answer by saurabh.gupta2 in this same thread. That is one part of the solution the other is configuration of TMS dial plan, VCS search rules, and CUCM Gateway config,

It is all documented pretty well, just in multple documents.

[conie saga]

Hello Lawrence,

I tried with Saurab solution unfortunately it didn't work. I configure ISDN zone with country code, but i didn't find how to assign ISDN zone to end point.

My end points are registered with CUCM so can't do much from TMS dial plan (it shows disable there ) what search rules do i need to configure on VCS & what configuration required on CUCM gateway ?

Would highly appreciate if you can guide in bit detail.

Regards,

[Lawrence James]

Ok I should have asked that question first – since you systems are registered to CUCM none of the previous advice will work. Unfortunately for now TMS cannot schedule devices registered to CUCM for call control, in order for you to schedule and have TMS handle the dialing-out via they must be registered to a VCS. For you your dialing out will need to be handled by the CUCM.

Setting up the search rules to send ISDN/PSTN calls that way is pretty straight forward, but will only be required if there is reason for VCS to process the call. Like you have VCS control and Expressway installaed for Firewall Traversal, You have Jabber (movi) provisioned on TMS/VCS or your Gateway is registered on VCS. There may be a couple of others, but that is good enough for now.

Now a couple of questions

If you have all systems registered to CUCM what function is the VCS performing?

How do you have the Gateway configured, do you have it configured as a CUCM resource or registered to VCS?

Is Jabber being used? Lync?

The big hurdle you will have to overcome is that right now TMS cannot schedule endpoints registered to CUCM. and if scheduling is not possible then using ISDN and IP zones to manage the dial plan for scheduled calls wont be of any help to you.

If scheduling is important to you and your business requirments then a rework is need in the short term. I full expect the TMS Scheduling will be resolved but have no idea when nor have i heard of any date. I jsut feel this will be fixed or resolved in some way soon.

[conie saga]

Hello Lawrence,

Thank you so much for explanation.

Our connectivity is....TP 320 registered with TP Conductor. TP Conductor is added into CUCM as bridge. CUCM has SIP trunk to VCS & VCS has connectivity to ISDN GW using H.323.

End Points are SX-20 & MXP 3000/6000

If you have all systems registered to CUCM what function is the VCS performing?
We have native TANDBERG Video End points MXP 3000/6000 which are registered to the VCS.

How do you have the Gateway configured, do you have it configured as a CUCM resource or registered to VCS?
Gateway is registered in VCS as H.323 device and VCS is connected with CUCM via SIP Trunk.

Is Jabber being used? Lync?
Yes we do have Jabber but it is using internally not from outside.

From TMS, we can auto dial & schedule conference calls to SX20 & MXP 3000 end points but can not to ISDN numbers (audio only)

We can make ISDN calls from SX20 end point itself and can add them into conference with SX20 & MXP without any problem.

Customer requirement is to make call from one central interface that is TMS.

Regards,

[conie saga]

Hello,

Sorry to put wrong info in previous post,

In my case, TMS is not able to auto dial H.323 end points for scheduled conference, It can dial SIP end points & is working fine.

In my case, when conference initiated from TMS, it shows the calls are initiated by TP Conductor. And I read some where that TP Conductor does not support auto dial to H323 end points (due to some limitation), hence i wont be able to achieve auto dial from TMS to H323 endpoints.

My next question, What if i add external number as SIP URL in TMS booking instead of ISDN/H323 ?

Should it work ? if yes then what configuration needs to be done in VCS, ISDN GW?

Regards,

[Lawrence James]

Thanks for the clarification having all the info does help. You have run into several of the issues realted to the Cisco TP solution. Although I believe some of the scheduling with TMS and Conductor was improved with TMS 14.4 and Conductor X2.4

In your case it seems you are using TMS to send dial commands to endpoints for PtP conferences. Is this correct?

Again if you have search rules and the dial plan setup correctly you should be able to "schedule" these PtP call with any registered endpoint with any other registered system or other systems as an External Participant.

You could also put all the CUCM systems in a Phone Book or as a Participant Template, then they could be added from the scheduling interface. This will only work if one system that is registered to TMS directly is one of the systems in the call

The most likely reason for you being able to dial SIP and not H323 is dial plan, search rules, interworking, or a combination of all three.

The limitation on the use of Conductor with SIP AND H.323 is that you will need the interworking feature of VCS and search rules/transforms to make it all work. Not really a limitation and more of a design criteria.

As long as your dial plan and search rules support it, using SIP URI's instead of H323 ID's or E164 Aliases should work. 

Conductor and CUCM doesn't work yet with scheduling through TMS period-stop-procede no further. Now this may change soon and probally sooner for Condutor than CUCM, just a guess and I hope I'm wrong on this. CUCM and Condutor right now make a good combination for MeetMe, Rendevous, and MultiWay if you have a compatible MCU. You dont mention a MCU but I would assume you have one or why else would you have Conductor.

[Lawrence James]

Ok in your case since you have endpoints and the gateway on TMS and VCS then the way you can configure this is

Prefix for gateway

Search Rules on VCS

ISDN and IP Zones on TMS

Route on CUCM to send Video ISDN calls to the gateway

From your description I thinks I understand you can make ISDN calls from the endpoints but can not use TMS to schedule or make the calls.

Until you can get everything working 100% a simple setup to test is to schedule a test conference use the Add participant > External >  Dial Out IP/H323 Video > [PREFIX][ISDN/PSTN NUMBER]

This should be the dial string you use from one of the SX20 devices you said could call ISDN directly.

If this works then is would just need to be configured in the ISDN and IP Zones in TMS.

If you have a fixed number of ISDN sites you could configure them as Particpant Templates (reusable) in TMS then that site could be added to a scheduled call just like any other endpoint. For a majority of the customers this endsup being the defualt method of "scheduling" ISDN sites. With ISDN and IP Zones only used for the occasional Scheduled Dial-In calls.

Then add a endpoint from TMS.Save conference and observe call.