CS1000S adding a PRI doesn't work?

[PKFrost]

I'm not a guru on the Nortel system by any means, but we have this dinosaur and I'm trying to add another PRI connection to it.

It seems that no outbound communications make it to the D channel. If I enl msgi and enl msgo, then dial the access code, I see nothing.

What seems crazy to me is that inbound communications seem to work just fine.

I have had a tech who is quite familiar with the Nortel system look at it up and down and he is baffled. He said there are no restrictions that should be stopping this--it simply doesn't work, and we get no SCH codes or anything indicating a problem.

I have one working PRI on the system, and it's in production so I'm afraid to touch that one.

I don't know the full history on this setup, but it was an Option11C that got upgraded to CS1000 4.5 and also had a signaling server added, so I'm lead to believe that makes the system a CS1000S v4.5. The working PRI was most likely built before the software upgrades.

Best guess at this point is that something went wrong during the upgrade but we never knew it b/c we never needed to add another PRI before.

 

[PKFrost]

Dial 8303 and I get dial tone, which I think is what I'm supposed to get. I thought after that, I'm supposed to be able to dial anything (even if it's not "real") and with the dchannel msgi msgo enabled, I should "see" it try?

Instead, I see nothing, and after a few moments, I hear a busy signal. One of the onsite techs did a trac on the extension while this happens and it was something like "RORD", not 100% sure on that, he called it "reorder".

Just to make sure I have it right, here is ld 20 PRT for the phone I am trying to use:
ld 20


PT0000
MARP NOT ACTIVATED

REQ: PRT

TYPE: 3904

TN 6 0 0 1

DATE

PAGE

DES


DES 501
TN 006 0 00 01
TYPE 3904
CDEN 8D
CUST 0
FDN 6790
TGAR 0
LDN NO
NCOS 6
SGRP 0
RNPG 1
SCI 0
SSU
LNRS 16
XLST
SCPW
CLS UNR FBD WTA LPR PUA MTA FNA HTA TDD HFA GRLD CRPA STSD
MWA LMPN RMMD SMWD AAD IMD XHD IRD NID OLD VCE DRG1
POD DSX VMD CMSD SLKD CCSD TENA SWD LNA CNDA
CFTD SFA MRD DDV CNIA CDCA MSID DAPA BFED RCBD
ICDA CDMA LLCN MCTD CLBD AUTU
GPUA DPUD DNDD CFXA ARHA FITD CLTD ASCD
CPFA CPTA ABDD CFHD FICD NAID BUZZ AGRD MOAD AHD
DDGA NAMA
DRDD EXR0
USMD USRD ULAD RTDD RBDD RBHD PGND OCBD FLXD FTTC MCBN
CDMR
CPND_LANG ENG
RCO 1
HUNT 6790
LHK 2
TEN 1
PLEV 02
CSDN
AST
IAPG 0
AACS NO
ITNA NO
DGRP
MLWU_LANG 0
MLNG ENG
DNDR 0
KEY 00 SCR 6501 0 MARP
CPND
NAME Switch Room
XPLN 13
DISPLAY_FMT FIRST,LAST
01 SCR 6701 0 MARP
CPND
NAME Switch Room
XPLN 13
DISPLAY_FMT FIRST,LAST
02 SCR 6436 0 MARP
CPND
NAME Switch Room
XPLN 13
DISPLAY_FMT FIRST,LAST
03 ADL 4 770
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16 MWK 7700
17 TRN

 

[trvlr1]

A couple of things to try:
in your RDB make TARG blank (TARG x I think)
NCRD yes (you may see Network redirect messages you do not see now)
In your DCH RLS_ID 36 (is for DMS 100) you might want to try other options to see if it better suits your set up.

 

[Reusser]

From note ealier you are connecting to an AudioCodes Mediant gateway to an Exchange UM system.

Is the gateway also setup as NI2?
Does it have a option to do a different protocol? QSIG or DMS100

It is not uncommon to not see dch messages when dialing ACOD with NI2

 

[trvlr1]

I agree with reusser, my first thought when reading this is that the other end is not set up right ....

 

[PKFrost]

Thanks again everyone for responses.

The gateway device is also set for NI2.

My PRI for telephone calls is NI2 and I see messages on it.

My main Nortel guy seemed sure the problem was in the PBX. His logic was basically that the process was never getting far enough to be the AudioCodes issue, especially in light of incoming communications from AudioCodes to PBX apparently working but not outgoing from PBX to AudioCodes.

My IT vendor (handling the AudioCodes setup) also thinks the issue is on the PBX side.

That said, I came here looking for fresh ideas. So, I've got the AudioCodes recommended setup for a CS1K and I'm going to try to configure it myself, "from scratch". Since you pointed at the protocol I looked at that first and NI2 is not suggested, rather they seem to want E1 QSIG on the AudioCodes side and EGF4 for the Nortel side. I would have thought they must be set to the same thing, but perhaps these are different codes that mean the same thing.

I will bang on this some more and report the results.

 

[PKFrost]

OK, I don't know if this is the answer for certain but I may know what is wrong now.

Put shortly, I have an IT vendor and a PBX vendor, and it appears neither of them have the full picture. The IT guys were supposed to do the AudioCodes and Exchange UM side, while the PBX guy was supposed to do the Nortel side.

I downloaded the documentation from AudioCodes, initially trying to figure out the alternate protocol options as suggested by Reusser. I noticed that the TKTP was DID and the protocol NI2, but AudioCodes shows TKTP TIE and protocol EGF4. On the Nortel system, trying to configure the RDB with these setting resulted in an error:
SCH6670
QSIGGF package is restricted

Then I found a section from AudioCodes indicating the required packages:
• PKG 305 (QSIG Generic Function)
• PKG 316 (QSIG Supplementary Services)
• PKG 263 (QSIG Basic Call/Name Display)
• PKG 175 (Network Message Service).

Searched and found how to print the package list, and I only have PKG 263 from the list above.

So, now I'm thinking that my Nortel system is simply not equipped to properly talk QSIG with the AudioCodes. When the IT vendor and phone vendors worked together, I guess that the IT vendor never bothered reading the AudioCodes documentation (I suppose I could have started there myself), and they just tried TKTP DID and IFC NI2 because it was a common option on both sides.

Being that I am below even novice level to this arena, I am not sure if what I'm thinking even makes sense. Does it seem like I am on the right track now? If so, where can I get these missing packages? I'm sure there is some cost associated with obtaining/installing them, eh? Are we talking a few hundred or a few thousand dollars?

 

[Reusser]

Qsig would be the prefered option - you will need to talk to your sales rep. Since you are on 4.5, it will most likely mean an upgrade.

If the Audio codes has the option for DMS100 protocol, you could set the nortel as SL100 TKTP =Tie. Cisco has a config note on this. have used a few times and works well.

 

[PKFrost]

I will try the DMS100/S100 just to see if it would work. My AudioCodes has two DMS100 options:
T1 DMS100 ISDN
T1 DMS100 Meridian ISDN

Generally, I try to stay in a recommended/supported setup, so even if I get some functionality this way, I still think I need to get the upgrades and do QSIG. I can only imagine this costing another $10K+, though, so it's possible the whole project will be scrapped.

At this stage, I'm a bit disappointed in the IT vendor. I have had two Nortel vendors and was trying to find a third to look at this, but it seems like the IT vendor should have relayed the system requirements for the AudioCodes device.

 

[PKFrost]

Update: Had a 3rd tech that is supposed to be versed in Nortel look at the setup today.

He said the dchannel messages probably weren't showing up because the NI2 protocol is meant to work with a CO type of connection, not a connection between devices like this. He didn't seem to think my system was corrupt, like the previous tech did.

However, I'm not so sure, because one of the troubleshooting steps I used was to plug the AudioCodes into the existing and working PRI. It happened to be using NI2 already. So instead of connecting to the telco circuit, we connected the AudioCodes, and on that dchannel I could see messages/activity that I didn't see on the attempted new PRI setup. So that is still a mystery to me.

He also said that to add the QSIG functionality that this PRI needs, I would have to upgrade to the latest release (I think he said v7.5). I got the impression this was not due to technical requirements, but due to the way Avaya is supporting the system--like they simply won't offer to sell the 3 packages I need by themselves for v4.5.

Well, if I got to anything 5.0 or greater, I think I can do direct SIP and so there's no reason to do the PRI. So, my underlying PRI mystery may never be solved. =/

 

[PKFrost]

Update:
2 more Nortel techs looked at the system, both of these tech were from AT&T. The first one struggled and called in another engineer who I was told was one of their most experienced Nortel techs. He looked at the situation, could not make it work either, and thinks there is something wrong with our PBX.

So 4 of 5 Nortel techs think there is something corrupt or otherwise malfunctioning with our PBX, and none of the five could make it function. Also none of the five could pin point the exact problem.

I got a quote for upgrading the software to release 7.5: $38,000, including a 3 year PASS. I think that is absurd. Avaya is pricing this so high that it looks like our best option is to forklift upgrade the phone system. You can guess that with this treatment, the next system will not be from Avaya.

 

[PERRYPJ]

Only going to get worse, welcome to Avaya Licensing

OLD ROLMEN WORKING ON NORTELS AND AVAYA

 

[pbxn]

Not sure if your pkg restriction would allow you to do it this way, but instead of the EGF4 at the IFC prompt, use ISGF. Its a differant flavor of QSIG if you will.

 

[RickyPone]

I bet your problem is in the tennant service. You have to allow a route for the tennants to use. Here's what you do go to ld 93 and print the racc. Enter until it prompts you acc and then enter alow. I bet your route is not listed like the others.