Set priority on PRI Trunk Groups

[bdlarmor]

Our configuration is somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 PRI's, scattered amongst 7 sites. I'm looking for a way, either by call type (local/LD), or Site to set a weight or priority on the trunk groups.

Example.
Site 1 has TG1, TG2
TG1 is setup for free local calls.

I'd like to force anyone making a local call to use TG1 @ Site1 primarily before using their sites "local" TG.

~or~

Just a way to set a basic order by site for PRI use. I want all sites to be able to make outgoing on all PRI TG's at any site, but I'd like them to go out their local PRI first, assuming room, and then off to the next closest site etc.


Only one of or CO's has an issue with outgoing CLID not being displayed properly if the number calling doesn't live on that PRI, so I'd like to put that one last in the list for every "other" site, and first for that particualr site.

Let me know if i need to clarify.

Thanks!

[gberkemeyer]

Brian,

By default, calls will first be routed out a trunk at any site where that call is local due to the automatic Least Cost Routing of the ShoreTel system. If the call is not local to any site, it will first route out the local trunks of the caller's site, by default. I don't think you can force a local call out a trunk that would make it a long distance call unless you don't authorize the user to the trunk group where the call is local.

I can tell you how we've setup our call routing, which is a little unusual. We have a total of 11 sites. Our headquarters site has 2 PRI's, and 6 of our other sites each have a PRI also. The remaining 4 sites have POTS lines.

At our Headquarters site, each of the two PRI's is with a different carrier. PRI1 gets better LD rates than PRI2 and all of the other sites, but PRI2 has a larger local calling area than PRI1. Both PRI1 and PRI2 are capable of local and long distance (from the carrier perspective). Our goal was to route all long distance calls from all sites over PRI1 when possible, but route any local calls over PRI2 first to ensure that PRI1 always had channels available for LD calls.

Here's what we did:
We set every remote site to "Use Parent as Proxy" so that it could use the headquarters trunks for other than just Least Cost Routing calls.
On PRI2, we disallowed long distance calls and then put a custom dialing rule of ";-35A" to give it the highest priority of any of our trunk groups. This forces all local calls to that Trunk group first.
On PRI1, we allowed LD calls and Locals calls (for overflow) and put a custom dialing rule of ";-30A" to give it the highest priority of any trunk besides PRI2. This forces all long distance calls out PRI1 unless it is full. If PRI1 becomes full, the Long distance calls go out each site's local trunks (and the headquarters site calls will go out another site's trunks also since PRI2 does not allow long distance)

However, when we put this in, we had one major problem...All 911 calls from all sites began routing through PRI2 at the headquarters site. To fix this, we had to go into each trunk group at all remote sites and add a custom dialing rule of "<911>X.%4G" to force 911 calls to go out local trunks.

Hope this helps somewhat.

Gary

[Jason Learmouth]

The ShoreTel system can do what you want, Gary outlined a fairly complex routing setup using custom dial plans. Using the "Parent as Proxy" setting can bring issues such as the 911 one that Gary had to work around, best to avoid that setting if you can.

You can probably do most of what you want by adding "Near by area codes" to your trunk groups. You might need a small edit to the custom dial plan of the trunk group you want to be last in your list.

[bdlarmor]

Thanks for the replies. I'll do some poking around in director and see if I can't get something working. Problem is now (mid-deployment) we only have a couple of PRI's plugged in, so testing any of these setups will prove difficult. The whole reason I was inquiring about this is we are about to get some IP-flex lines from AT&T, which have a very attractive local call rate. Only 2 of our 7 sites will have those trunks, and I think for system launch we will jsut let everythign go out wherever it can, but for the "big picture" we will be digging deeper and getting things to route the way we want for cost effectiveness. =)

[everardsingh]

Help with 911 Custom String

Gary,

I am new to ShoreTel and have the same scenario as you described. To force the 911 call over the analog line after checking the "User Parent as Proxy" setting all I would need to do would be to login in the Support Entry mode, go to the analog trunk group for the site and edit the Custom Trunk Group Dialing Rules and type in <911>X.%4G and save. Is this correct? or is there another way to insert the custom string?

Thanks in advance!

Everard

[gberkemeyer]

Gary,

I am new to ShoreTel and have the same scenario as you described. To force the 911 call over the analog line after checking the "User Parent as Proxy" setting all I would need to do would be to login in the Support Entry mode, go to the analog trunk group for the site and edit the Custom Trunk Group Dialing Rules and type in <911>X.%4G and save. Is this correct? or is there another way to insert the custom string?

Thanks in advance!

Everard

Everard, when we upgraded beyond version 7.0, we had to change the custom dialing rule to ;25M instead of <911>X.%4G and we had to remove the "Use Parent as Proxy" from the remote sites. ShoreTel documentation says you have to either wait 5 minutes or restart TMS for this dialing rule change to take effect. ShorTel KB12996 explains this as well as some other Dial Plan customizations. And yes, the only way to enter the custom dialing rule is to use Support Entry mode.

Gary

[everardsingh]

Thanks!

Everard, when we upgraded beyond version 7.0, we had to change the custom dialing rule to ;25M instead of <911>X.%4G and we had to remove the "Use Parent as Proxy" from the remote sites. ShoreTel documentation says you have to either wait 5 minutes or restart TMS for this dialing rule change to take effect. ShorTel KB12996 explains this as well as some other Dial Plan customizations. And yes, the only way to enter the custom dialing rule is to use Support Entry mode.

Gary

Gary, thanks for taking the time to reply. I connected with ShoreTel and they did exactly what you explained. it seems to be working.

Everard