Hello all!
I was recently contacted by an old client who is moving offices. They have four-digit dialing between offices and use a lot of h.323 tie lines. However, they’re migrating to Cisco and during the transition, they just want to convert four digits to a PSTN call. Most of our telephone systems probably do this, but we rarely need to change it or add new ones, so I figured I’d summarize the process here.
Typically, four-digit translation is done based upon the first two digits (i.e. 100 numbers at-a-time). There are really only a few steps: Create the entry in the “dialplan analysis”, then the “uniform-dialplan”, then the “aar digit-conversion”. It is possible to perform some digit-conversion in the uniform dialplan, but I prefer to use the aar digit-conversion table due to consistency and flexibility. In this example, we add translation for the 83xx range to dial 914-555-83xx.
Step 1 – Verify the Dialplan is available for the first two digits
There should no entry for ‘83’ in the “dialplan analysis” table.
display dialplan analysis Page 2 of 12
DIAL PLAN ANALYSIS TABLE
Location: all Percent Full: 11
Dialed Total Call Dialed Total Call Dialed Total Call
String Length Type String Length Type String Length Type
8 4 ext
80 3 dac
86 4 ext
87 4 ext
Step 2 – change the dialplan analysis
Next, change the dialplan analysis adding an ‘83’ with a total length of 4 and a call-type of ext. We’re really going to use AAR to route this call, but that will be done through the uniform dialplan next. Confirm the entry:
display dialplan analysis Page 2 of 12
DIAL PLAN ANALYSIS TABLE
Location: all Percent Full: 11
Dialed Total Call Dialed Total Call Dialed Total Call
String Length Type String Length Type String Length Type
8 4 ext
80 3 dac
83 4 ext
86 4 ext
87 4 ext
Step 3 – Check uniform dialplan
Next, check the uniform dialplan. It is possible to have entries in the uniform-dialplan that are not in the dialplan analysis table (as far as I can tell, this is a mistake because you’ll get wave-off). In my case, I don’t have 83s:
list uniform-dialplan Page 8
UNIFORM DIAL PLAN TABLE
Matching Pattern Len Del Insert Digits Net Conv Node Num
7977 4 4 7577 ext n
7978 4 4 7578 ext n
7983 4 4 7583 ext n
7986 4 4 7586 ext n
7988 4 4 6111 ext n
8651 4 4 1111 ext n
8662 4 4 1111 ext n
Step 4 – OPTION 1 – Uniform dialplan only
Like everything else in a telephone system, there are multiple ways to do this. Let’s call this OPTION 1 where we only use the Uniform Dialplan (and not aar analysis)
Create an entry in the uniform dialplan for 83 with a length of 4 and no deleted digits. However, we are going to insert the digits here to route through the PSTN. In this case, insert 1914304. We set the Network to ‘ars’ so that this call goes through ARS routing. Note that we do not include a ‘9’ in the inserted digits. This is because we’re explicitly telling the PBX to use ARS routing (which is also what the ‘9’ does). Also note that you can only insert 10 digits here, which is not enough for some international translations. In that case, I use ars with digit translation. But this is fine for USA numbers. However, to be consistent between a mix of USA and international, I will typically use ARS digit-conversion as described in the next step OPTION 2.
list uniform-dialplan Page 8
UNIFORM DIAL PLAN TABLE
Matching Pattern Len Del Insert Digits Net Conv Node Num
7977 4 4 7577 ext n
7978 4 4 7578 ext n
7983 4 4 7583 ext n
7986 4 4 7586 ext n
7988 4 4 6111 ext n
83 4 0 1917304 ars n
8651 4 4 1111 ext n
[Note, the option above works for the North American numbering plan, but not for longer international strings, so I always use the next option]
Step 4 – OPTION 2 – AAR digit conversion
This is the most consistent (and my preferred) option, because if you have any translations to international numbers you’ll probably need to use this method. Create an entry in the uniform dialplan for 83 with a length of 4 and no deleted digits. However, we also want to perform digit conversion on this pattern so be sure to stroke the “Conv” column to ‘y’ so additional conversion can take place.
list uniform-dialplan Page 8
UNIFORM DIAL PLAN TABLE
Matching Pattern Len Del Insert Digits Net Conv Node Num
7977 4 4 7577 ext n
7978 4 4 7578 ext n
7983 4 4 7583 ext n
7986 4 4 7586 ext n
7988 4 4 6111 ext n
83 4 0 ars y
8651 4 4 1111 ext n
Next, create an entry in the aar digit-conversion table for 83. Set the min/max to 4 and insert the new digits in the replacement string. Then set the Net to “ars” to tell the PBX to route the call out to the PSTN. There will be no more digit conversion, so leave Conv to ‘n’.
list aar digit-conversion
AAR DIGIT CONVERSION REPORT
Location: all
Matching Pattern Min Max Del Replacement String Net Conv ANI Req
0 1 28 0 ars y
1 4 28 0 ars y
5982 4 4 4 12155550542 ars n
7317 4 4 0 555929 aar y
7501 4 4 4 13105555425 ars n
83 4 4 0 1917555 ars n
x11 3 3 0 ars y
And that’s it! You should be able to dial 83xx and it will use ARS routing to the translated value of 191755583xx. If you have any trouble at all, you can refer to my flowchart of Avaya routing to help troubleshoot this.
Happy routing, everyone!
Roger