Route 10 digit dialed numbers to 4 digit VoIP extensions

[matthubach]

If a branch office phone dials a 10 digit TN of a VoIP phone, instead of simply dialing the internal extension, is there any way to route that call over the WAN instead of sending the call off to the PSTN? We have 30+ locations for which we'd like to apply this concept to.

We are using a mixture of PSTN's and SIP trunks, MGCP gateways, and CUCM 7.1

Thanks,

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

Absolutely although the answer will differ depending on the intracies of your particular dial plan design. Here are two common approaches:

• (Adapt) Create translation patterns for your DID ranges within the same partition that the off-net route patterns exist. The more-specific translation pattern will be matched, preventing the call from going off-net. In your example as you've described it:
  • Route Pattern: [2-9]XX[2-9]XXXXXX or 9.[2-9]XX[2-9]XXXXXX
  • Translation Pattern:
    • FROM: 608[2-9]XX.XXXX or 9.608[2-9]XX.XXXX (Take note of the period and the fact that the pattern is more explicit than your route pattern!)
    • TO: Digit Discard: PreDot; Use a CSS that has the internal DNs.
• (Start Over) This, along with a long list of other dial plan shortcomings has been designed in the E.164-based dial plan introduced with CUCM 7.0; however, this essentially requires you to start over. There is no easy way to convert from the legacy model. The E.164 "act local, think global" mentality would inherently catch this.
  Full disclosure: I am a big proponent of the E.164-based design and am unlikely to be entirely impartial here.

[matthubach]

Thanks Jonathan, I haven't thought much about the E.164 based dial plans. I see that you write freuently about it. Is there any particular documentation out there you would highly suggest to begin wrapping the mind around it? For my current situation, I'll work on the translations patterns. Thanks,

[Jonathan Schulenberg]

In my opinion, Cisco has done an incredibly poor job explaining, and even documenting, E.164 designs; either within CUCM or how it interacts with other products such as voicemail, call center, or even IOS.

The UC SRND Dial Plan chapter is the best document available presently. The problem is it never shows you a complete, fully functional, dial plan design. All you get are isolated examples that don't add up. To be fair, it didn't really hand-hold you through the legacy model either. The only other option I am aware of is to attend a session at Cisco Live, typically presented by Luc Bouchard. For 2010 it was titled BRKUCC-3000: Advanced Dial Plan Design for IP Telephony Networks. After reading the SRND and that session in 2009, it still took me a solid three weeks in the lab before I truly got it.

As far as I can tell, even many Cisco partners are not using it yet because it's so poorly understood. Once you get it though, it's time to break out the whiskey because you can make CUCM do some amazing things. Especially now that SAF, SME, and maybe IME (if it catches on) are available.

[matthubach]

My DID example ranges are as follows:

CorpHQ: 4100-4199

Branch: 5300-5399

Branch dials CorpHQ 9 1 (555) 123 4155 and it rings out PSTN

Branch dials 4155 and it rings WAN

Branch current Route Pattern (offnet) 9.@ in Branch-Outgoing partition

555-123-41XX Translation pattern is in CorpHQ-Incoming partition

Here is what I did:

I created a translation pattern for 555123.41XX in partition Branch-Outgoing

Discard Digits: Predot

Called Party Transform Mask: 41XX

(getting a little lost here)

I created a route pattern for 9.1555123XXXX in partition Branch-Outgoing

Discard Digit: PreDot

What am I missing?