ISDN PRI Backup Strategy 3

[JoefromPA]

Help,

We have a Verizon ISDN PRI handling our inbound DID calls as well as outbound local calls. We are trying to implement a backup for the PRI, as if it goes down, we are out of business as far as receiving inbound calls. Recently installed an ISDN PRI from another carrier as a backup and hoped to take advantage of Verizon's Custom Redirect service. Verizon is telling me that I need to pay a monthly fee for each DID I want redirected and I have a consultant telling me that I only need to pay for one number - that being the original BTN. Any suggestions?
BTW - the location is East Rutherford - New Jersey.

 

[srmega41]

Qwest has a similar service that is billed on a T1 or a DID number level. The service is called BCR. You can redirect a single, or several, PRI's for $75 per month per T1 or a subset of numbers for $3.50 per number, per month. The T1 level service redirects all the numbers that are provided by that T1. If your PRI carries 20 numbers, a per number is a better deal. If the PRI have a couple hundred numbers on it, the per PRI rate is much better. The original BTN, as far as Qwest is concerned, may not help you in any event. (One thing to keep in mind is HOW are the numbers redirected. Does Verizon redirect them all to one number, or can you repoint every number individually to a new number on your new PRI?)

I would tend to lean towards Verizons product description rather than a consultant's opinion. He is the one that WON'T be impacted when your PRI goes down.

Hope this helps,

Scott M.

 

[ISDNman]

Obviously the tarrifs vary, but I am 99% sure I have seen cases where two PRIs (each with it's own D channel) were configured as a single trunk group for all the incoming DID numbers.

If the one PRI goes out then the calls just hunt over to the second PRI.

Obviously in this case, both trunks are from the same carrier, so you would still want to give additional attention to redundancy (although since most CLECS are on ILEC copper or fiber that certainly does not guranteee redundancy in terms of backhoe fade in any case) such as a separate cable and or serving CO.

Here are some Quest links that cover some of their redundancy options that should give you some ideas to think about (Verizon's options may be different, of course):

http://www.qwest.com/techpub/77340/77340.pdf

http://www.qwest.com/techpub/77344/77344.pdf

Good luck

 

[cwc3]

hey if the cable gets hit it is going to knock down
pots service as well!

 

[srmega41]

I agree a Backup D-Channel on a second PRI provides that redundancy, but I was thinking along the lines of the comment JoefromPA made:

Recently installed an ISDN PRI from another carrier as a backup

One options would be to get a DID range that matches the exiting, last four digits obviously, and map each DID to its equal from the other carrier. That way a call during a failover would still be routed to the right desk. The administration of that could be a nighmare, but it would at least allow inbound calls to terminate to the right stations in the event of a failure.

You could even configure the backup carriers PRI as a secondary route in the PBX, so if the first is unavailable, the second is used, without the end user having to do anything.

Scott M.

 

[cwc3]

redundancy is good but can be expensive!still won't save you
from a cable cut.

 

[ISDNman]

cwc3

Wiht all due respect intended, you don't know what you are talking about. While it is expensive, you can have a seperate cable brought in to a different part of the building. You can also get service from a second CO through that cable. It is all a matter of your budget.

Yes, this is too expensive for many busineses, but it is available. Look at the Quest links for some of the many ways you can acheive real redundancy.

 

[cwc3]

you said it if you have the money they can feed your
building from 2 locations .

 

[srmega41]

Not to respond for ISDNman, but to further his point; YES.

We currently have two points of egress for the building, on opposited sides and going to two seperate Central Offices (CO's). There is a SHARP (Self Healing Alternate Routing Path) cabinet in my data center that will switch paths in less than 10 milliseconds of a failure. This is currently an OC12, but it will work for lower speed optical services.

Keep in mind this alternate path switches THROUGH the alternate CO to the primary, so a CO failure would still take us down.

Hope this helps,

Scott M.

 

[cwc3]

Hey I don't doubt that dual C.O. feeds exist
I stand corrected smegma41 you guys are obviosly
in the city were there is a CO on every block
but to have that here would be useless.

 

[srmega41]

Sorry, I did not mean to offend if I did. This forum makes it very hard at times to know what technical level people are at.

Please accept my apologies if I presented anything other than an attempt to be helpful.

Scott M.

 

[cwc3]

yep we are dealing with nortel dms sub c.o's here
so they'ed laugh at you if you said you wanted a
feed from the next city/town

 

[srmega41]

Understood. Being in Denver and the surrounding 'burbs, CO's are much more frequent. Not on every corner, but certainly much more easy to come by than in your environment.

Again, no disrespect intended.

Scott M.

 

[johnpoole]

here in carolina's capital i have feeds from two unique offices for redundant service. if your stuck with a single office, i wouldn't pay for redirect, i would buy a second pri in the same trunk group. if you lose the office the redirect is down anyway. with dual pri's you lose one and your calls overflow to the second. didn't read all the post but that seems like a simple solution. realize of course that spending tons of money to insure service in case of a co failure may be overkill, i lose a maybe twice a year, but i have 40 pris off of a oc3 ring. i can't get the company to spend money in case they all go down..

john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[cwc3]

Looks like Quest gives you a nice fuzzyblanket
of protection!!

 

[artesian2000]

This is one of the reasons why I won't use Verizon on deals I'm consulting on because of thier policy on this. Typically if I run into a client that wants fail overover I'll use a CLEC such as Paetec or Focal as the primary carrier for the inbound. They offer a failover service for a nominal fee if that the primary t-1 does go down it can push all the calls to another number. Although the DID information will not traverse onto the other ckt, provisioning the backup into an auto attendant guarantees my call can at least get to my location. If redundancy is paramount I'd go with both CLECs in this model where primary fails into secondary and secondary into a POTS hunt group. Again I'll stess the the calls transfer not the DID'd so it requires auto attendant be setup on the failover paths. We have this deployed for a multitude of clients in the NYC and NJ area and it works like a champ. Doesn't really help you with your Verizon dilema but there is alternates out there.
Good Luck

 

[cwc3]

verizon on nantucket and the vineyard are the only game in town!!

 

[phoneguy55]

I have custom redirect in NJ also. They charge per DID. I usually opt to custom redirect the main number for DR reasons. You can try to be a redundant as possible but there is allways going to be one or more points of failure.