CM 4 integration w/Octel via PRI 2 Avaya Definity - PBX Info :: Your Free PBX, PABX and Telephone Information Resource

Andy · 08-20-2007, 10:58 AM

The company I work for just got a nice new Cisco CM 4.2 system with a 2821 gateway. We set up a PRI T1 connection to our existing Avaya telephony infrastructure. The Avaya PBX is a Definity release 9. The Avaya is connected to an Octel 250, with digital integration (so no SMDI). We had hoped to have the Octel handle voice mail for the phones on the Cisco Call Manager. We set up the correct pilot number in the CM, which is getting to the Octel. However whenever a CM phone goes to voice mail, the Octel answers with the same greeting as if you had just called the Octel to get your messages. In other words the Octel doesn't seem to know that the incoming call is intended for mailbox delivery.

In working with our Octel vendor they ran a trace of what happens when a call goes to voice mail from the Call Manager, and when one goes to voice mail from the Definity (which works fine). It looks like the Octel sees the inbound call as a "dir_ext" call, while it wants to see a "fwd_ext" call. I have no idea how to set the Call Manager to try and dupe that when it gets sent to the Definity and then on to the Octel.

I realize that this post could be in any of 3 different forums here. I figured I would try the Cisco one first, because I figured someone must have run into this issue before. Any thoughts or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

***sillejo*** · 08-21-2007, 08:07 AM

This is an issue with the PRI and what the Avaya is handing off to the Octel.

IP PHoneExt 4101 >------(PRI)------>Avaya---->Octel.

If you call the Avaya from an IP Phone do you see the correct extension in Caller ID? Is this the same number programmed as a vmail box in Octel? If the Octel's only connectivity is to the Avaya, then the Avaya is translating the call incorrectly when it comes in from those PRI's. There isn't much the CM can do about that.

Give me the digit scenario. What is the extension on the IP Phone, what is the Pilot number, what is the vmail box number, is there an access code to get from the CM to the Definity across those trunks?

On the 2821, you can see exactly what digits are being passed to the Avaya:
Router#debug isdn q931
then to turn it off
Router#un all

so after you issue the first command, use Hyperterm or Putty or something to capture the output. Place a call and you will see inthe output "CallingNumber" and "CalledNumber" Calling is the extension of the IP phone and called should be the VM pilot number.

Andy · 08-21-2007, 11:01 AM

I agree completely that it is something to do with the hand off across the PRI, and the hand off from the Avaya to the Octel.

CM IP Station 1516 --> (PRI) --> Avaya VM Pilot 3471 --> Octel

The pilot number for the Octel is 3471. This is the lead number of a group of channels which connect the Avaya to the Octel. The Octel is using digital integration, which means that those channels are digital and pass the digit information in the name field of the extension covering to voice mail. Therefore when an extension goes to voice mail, it needs to pass its own display information (not the information of the number calling it) and its display information needs to contain the mailbox number you want the call to go to. We align the mailbox numbers so that they are the same as the extension, since that makes it much less complex to administer.

This digital hand off does work for all of the extensions on the Avaya directly, and for the extensions which are in another Avaya PBX that is connected via a DCS connection (similar but not exactly the same as the PRI to the CM).

I ran a test where I changed the voice mail pilot number on the CM to a display extension on the Avaya so I could see what was being passed over the PRI. I found that the CM is passing the caller information instead of the display from the extension going to VM. So if I called extension 1516 from extension 1102, the CM is passing the information for 1102 instead of the information for 1516. So at least one part of this is that the information being passed isn't correct.

I am not fully convinced that this is the only issue that needs resolution to make it work though. In the scenario above you would expect that the Octel would send the call to the mailbox for 1102. However it doesn't. It simply treats the calls as if someone had called the VM pilot (3471) to check their messages. So I think there are at least 2 things that I need to figure out to make it work.

Thanks for your ideas and suggestions.

Andy · 08-21-2007, 03:44 PM

I managed to figure out the issue with the CM passing the correct information to the Avaya. That involved changing a setting in the trunk group on the Avaya so that it would send the information to other phone sets (Codeset to Send Display: 6). It also involved changing the settings for the individual T1 on the gateway. That setting was Calling Party Selection which needed to be set to Last Redirect Number. That told the CM to send the display for the phone being called rather than the caller id of the phone making the call.

However this still doesn't get the voice mail to work properly. I ran another trace on the Octel with the latest changes. The Octel is now getting the correct digit information, but still shows the incoming call as a DIR_INT, while it should see a FWD_INT. I assume that the difference is that the Octel thinks the call is simply a direct call to it, as opposed to a forwarded call. I really am confused as to how I can manage to dupe the system on this part. I have tried some dummy groups in the Avaya but so far nothing has worked. Any ideas or suggestions would be great.

The sad thing is that if I had the more backward voice mail integration (using analog lines) then it would probabaly use the codes which the CM can easily adjust to.

Andy · 08-24-2007, 10:10 AM

I figured out how to make it work, except for the MWI. In this case the Octel APIC integration actually made the difference. What I did was to create a dummy extension in the Avaya PBX, with my Call Manager extension number in the name field. Then I set the Call Manager to cover to the dummy extension instead of the VM pilot number. When the call goes to the Avaya, it hits that dummy extension which immediately goes to the Octel. The Octel reads the MBX number from the name field, and sends it to my extension's VM. Obviously this is hard to scale, since every phone on the CM will need a corresponding dummy extension on the Avaya. It will work on a small scale though, which is what I needed.

In terms of MWI I was able to find a product that Cisco makes called a DPA 7630. It allows integration between an Octel and a CM. So I am working with my BP to see if that will be feasible. This stuff sure is fun!

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