Newbie Question 1

[NewGigs]

Hello All,

I'm glad I found this forum. I've been reading some of the Q&A's and am impressed by the interaction and help people are providing.

Now for my situation. I've been asked to help out on a project involving setting up telecom requirements for a PBX system. The requirements are for an RFP for service providers and I'm a little fuzzy as to where to begin.

Some background Info:

Nortel Meridian One PBX with ~600 analog & digital ports
8 CO analog trunks
3 T1 PRIs
1 T1 for long distance
700 block of DID #'s
1.544 Internet connection

I've asked the current provider for a Traffic Study to better understand if they need all of this capacity or maybe need more. I'm wondering what other information I should be looking at so that I can nail down the telecom requirements and get on with helping with writing RFP. The client is old school and likes status quo in terms of technology.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[hawks]

Do a Google search for "Telecom RFP" you'll find some good information there.

 

[Nazule]

Usage on PRI can be a pain depending on how they are configured. For example you have 3 PRI which equals 70 channels/lines 1 signalling channel and 1 back up signalling channel. Those lines can be configured a number of different ways either in your PBX or from your Telco.

Your telco will break these out as routes in a traffic study. They will apply a poisson chart to it showing how much usage vs. what they think you need.

EG.
Trunk Route Number......: 002
Trunk Route Type........: DID
Grade of Service Model..: Poisson
Target Grade of Service.: 1.00%
Trunks Equipped.........: 0

Date Week Hour In Out Calls HH:MM

09/18/06 Monday 15-16 392 0 392 19:45
09/19/06 Tuesday 11-12 422 0 422 19:50
09/20/06 Wednesday14-15 346 0 346 20:38
09/21/06 Thursday 11-12 391 0 391 17:31
09/22/06 Friday 15-16 394 0 394 13:51


The example above is a DID route on a site much the size of yours but with 4 PRI.

The recommendation from the Telco is only 32 lines for this route. These lines share the 70 however so you have to take the information with a grain of salt. We also have a main LDN or your main phone number generating inbound calls as well as a route generating outbound calls at the same time all on the same 70 lines.

Trunk Route Number......: 010
Trunk Route Type........: CO
Grade of Service Model..: Poisson
Target Grade of Service.: 1.00%
Trunks Equipped.........: 0

Date Week In Out Calls HH:MM
09/18/06 Monday 10-11 0 600 600 26:53
09/19/06 Tuesday 11-12 0 602 602 32:35
09/20/06 Wednesday 11-12 0 522 522 27:30
09/21/06 Thursday 10-11 0 516 516 32:30
09/22/06 Friday 15-16 0 492 492 26:41

Here is the outbound info.

If you compare Tuesday at 11-12 on both you see a total of really 1024 calls in that hour inbound on DID and outbound.

Make sure they show you your ISA route, this is where all the PRI voice channels are and undivided into task. If these lines show blockage your need more.

Trunk Route Number......: 099
Trunk Route Type........: ISA
Grade of Service Model..: Poisson
Target Grade of Service.: 1.00%
Trunks Equipped.........: 94

Date Week In Out Calls HH:MM Blockage
09/18/06 Monday 10-11 476 600 1076 48:36 0.00%
09/19/06 Tuesday 11-12 476 602 1078 55:41 0.00%
09/20/06 Wednesday 11-12 402 522 924 47:16 0.00%
09/21/06 Thursday 10-11 409 516 925 52:01 0.00%
09/22/06 Friday 15-16 429 492 921 43:31 0.00%

Looking at this chart my providers says 71 lines are all I need. If we were not growing right now I would probably drop one PRI from this site. This would put me at 70 trunks 1 signalling 1 backup. I would have had 1 blocked call.

Most places work with a 3% to 10% blockage on trunk calls but that is totally up to you and your company.

As you can see on the ISA route info any other services you have on the PRI are all captured here so it is the key for your traffic study.

When you look at your T1 for long distance first its great to know how much it is being used but you may want to check its cost per month vs. standard long distance to that area. You will have the total time used on the T1 just do the math per minute for those calls over your current long distance plan to confirm if it is still more economical.
Depending on the area you are in and how far between sites the T1 goes to. It could cost $1000 and up per month.

 

[NewGigs]

Thanks a million, Nazule!

I'm still waiting on the report but I'll definitely be using your reply as a guide when I go over it....

 

[johnpoole]

bump that block up to 1000 and reserve another 1000.. cheap. your list of requirements seem very black and white. are you replacing a working system? one thing that will boost the price is analog to digital breakdown on the sets and features on those.. strange to see analog trunks, it has been nearly a decade since i've installed analog trunks as a backup to pri's.. with 3 pri's (local) look at 3 d channels.. same cost, better then a backup and the hardware will not break the bank.. look at voip at least partial for internal, it's here to stay.. i've installed almost every system on the market today and your in the right forum.. i think nortel has been without peer for over a decade


john poole
bellsouth business
columbia,sc

 

[NewGigs]

Thanks, John for your reply.

The RFP is for a local government agency that needs technical support in the writing of a telecom services RFP. They bought the PBX ~5 years ago and are not interested in any hardware changes or upgrades. They don't even want me to interact with the PBX vendor/technical support people in fear that I'll be influenced by them to make major changes to the PBX/service/features/etc. They are very tight with their budget(s) and are only going through this process as it's dictated by them being a public agency. They'd stick with the current SP if they could.

I've been kind of working my way around this black box but still have found a lot to scratch my head over. In your experience are you finding that more and more enterprises (government, institutional and/or business) are using the RFP process to setup service agreements? I come from more of a business and non-government background so it's been a little bit of a learning curve.

BTW, I think they are using the analog trunks for fax lines and/or modems but I'm still figuring that one out.

 

[aaron99]

i have a nortel cse1000 (communications server 1000) and a few other peices of gear. i'm new to tek-tips and don't know where to ask questions regarding powering up this cs1000 and beginning to familiarize myself with it.

help please in determining the best place to post this type of question

thanks
aaron

 

[aaron99]

also, is there a way to email my postings to this tek tips thing?

and also, how will i know when someone has replied to my questions? must i continue to refresh my browser or will i get email notified?

thanks
aaron

 

[acewarlock]

You ask and reply here and you have to wait for your reply and keep refreshing the browser.

No Email posting

 

[NewGigs]

Nazule,

So we have an average 19.4 % CCS Capacity @Target GOS for 70 Trunks (3 PRI) for a week long BO study.

The peak was 427 ccs / 1873 ccs for a percentage of 22.8 %

Seems to me to be WAY too much capacity.

Wish they had broken it down into in/out.

Any thoughts?

 

[NewGigs]

Even at the peak of 427 CCS = 11.9 Erlangs

Using P0.01 Erlang B Should need only ~27 Trunks (not 70).

First PRI configured DID only, other 2 configured In/Out.

No unusual call patterns like in a call center, just a regular somewhat quiet office environment.

Thoughts anyone?

Also, does anyone know if LECs charge more for DID verses In/Out?

 

[GHTROUT]

Here's a thought on traffic calculations. Many of my branch offices would calculate to 15 paths for essentially non-blocking service at the busy hour.

So, we order 1 PRI.

When we order 1 PRI, we almost always order 2 PRIs. (depending on our experience with the telco and the type of business the office does).

Sure, we could order 1 PRI and then backup analog. Or fool around with the various redirection plans.

But the bottom line is $1000/month is justifed in the first 10 minutes of interuption or inconvenience. We can take one down, call in and end up with intrusive testing, whatever...

10 minutes of outage avoided can avoid losses well over the annual cost of the service.

Know what else? New office - 10 people - that's an Option11

I mean, talk about a difference perspective...jeez!



~

http://www.GHTROUT.com/

 

[NewGigs]

Thanks for your input.

I'm wondering if they can't get away with 2 PRI rather than 3. Save them ~$6000/year.