Outbound PRI/ISDN Trunk on G3siV9.5 - Trying to understand how (if) this can be accomplished.

[shelzmike]

For the regular helpers, I do have a couple other threads, but while they are dealing with the same project I am working on, they are on different specific subjects so I decided to create another thread to ensure no confusion.

I have learned a lot over the past week in researching this, but still feel I am missing something that will lead me to an answer.

We have a Definity G3siV9.5, and oldie, but it has worked well for us. We have about 400 users. Nothing fancy really. What we are needing to do is migrate users over to a Sonus SBC for UC, which is already configured and ready to accept a T1/PRI input.

I know UDP, trunk-group, aar etc. need to be configured to make this work. I cannot afford (due to downtime) to do a hard cutover so I am hoping to implement the Sonus downstream of the PBX and have users migrated over to the UC system, making the proper programming changes related to the extensions in the PBX to route those users to the UC as they get migrated.

What cards, hardware, and features am I needing/looking for to create the T1/PRI outbound trunk from the PBX to the Sonus UC system? More importantly, what software features are needed? I can only find info on using QSIG trunking but that is for higher versions than I have. I understand (somewhat) what QSIG does; however, I am not sure we need QSIG bc as far as I can tell it is to send additional features like mwl, cid, etc. While those are nice to have, we can deal without those things during the migration. We don't need most of them, we just need a pure (if I can call it that) signal route from the PBX to the UC device.

You guys are fantastic Avaya teachers so I am hoping someone can help me straighten this out. I can't get a straight answer it seems from anyone. Thanks!

(PBX SPECS ARE ATTACHED)

 

[kyle555]

I think just a regular ISDN PRI will do enough of what you need - so long as you're not expecting migrated users to use the old voicemail system, or to use the same pool of PSTN trunks on one system.

You won't need any additional features to buy a TN464 PRI card off ebay for $20, follow the steps to "build a PRI trunk", build a route to use that new trunk and so long as you're willing to manage programming the numbers in UDP as they migrate, you'll be good to go to get calls out. Put the symmetric programming on the other side to get calls in, and you should be happy enough with that temporary setup.

 

[shelzmike]

Kyle -

Thanks for the info! You are thinking along the same lines as I am here. I feel like several of the vendors we have been talking to have forgotten K.I.S.S! I did have one clarification - what did you mean by "...or to use the same pool of PSTN trunks on one system."?

We have the PSTN trunks coming into just the PBX for now (via 4 PRI connections). The downstream system will need to utilize those for inbound and outbound calls, of course, temporarily. Once all users are migrated, we plan on physically moving the PSTN PRI connections from the PBX to the UC system. I will take a look at the procedure for building a PRI trunk. Again, you have been very helpful in all of this and I greatly appreciate it!

 

[kyle555]

It'll work if you're using PSTN trunks on the G3 for both the Avaya and Sonus users, there's just a few things you need to look into - especially re:trunk to trunk transfer being permitted as that was the convention to deny that back in the day.

Also, don't expect your Sonus users to CFWD to their cell and have the actual number of the originating caller that was forwarded to show up properly. QSIG might have helped you there.

But, so long as you set the bar low, people won't be disappointed

 

[shelzmike]

They are all too excited about having the new UC setup to begin with and I must say are genuinely an understanding bunch. I think it will be livable since it will only be temporary during the migration. So long as I tell them that once we are fully migrated things will be better then they should be all good.

I will check out the trunk to trunk transfer, but so far I have not come across anything else stating that won't work. In fact, I found this link that basically describes exactly what we are trying to do (I think) though the downstream is Asterisk and not Sonus, though I don't think that matters in the slightest.

http://www.iaug.org/p/fo/et/thread=26883

About the 4th response down (user Regis something)...the Avaya side setup seems what we need to do.

One more question - for the actual physical connection, should I be needing/using a 120A2 CSU module with a crossover cable that would plug directly into the UC side? This is one thing I have failed to think about this whole time!

 

[kyle555]

I have no idea. It depends on what the other side is providing. I reckon you'll be ok without it.
What kind of PRI card are you using to hookup? A TN464?

 

[shelzmike]

That is correct, I believe we have correctly identified that we need the TN464 card. This is the exact card on the receiving Sonus SBC:

https://support.sonus.net/display/UXDOC41/T1-E1+PSTN+Interface+Cards