Configure Avaya ISDN Circuits

The 5 steps for a successful T1/E1 Cut

In this post “Configure Avaya ISDN Circuits” you get to see what to avoid and what to prepare for whenever deploying new ISDN-PRI T1/E1. From documenting smart-jack information, to step by step testing and T1 implementation.

DS1 T1/E1s besides bringing the capability of carrying voice traffic, they can also provide clock synchronization to the Voice Equipment. In the Case of Communications Manager each DS1 Clock Source helps synchronize port networks and H.248 Gateways.

As technicians we get to see at first hand how easy or difficult something that should be straight forward can turn into a nightmare. After conducting numerous of T1 cuts through out my career, I have experienced the good, bad, and the ugly . To avoid common mistakes I have put together these 5 steps=

• 1.-Data Gathering
• 2.-System Preparation
• 3.-Step by step configuration (Avaya Aura and IP Office)
• 4.-Preliminary Testing
• 5.-Cut to service

1.-Data Gathering

You have to treat the DS1-T1 or E1 installation just as a regular implementation. Try having the customer conduct a conference call with the Service Provider if possible prior to scheduling it. If some reason you can’t talk directly with the SP, then send a series of questions to your customer asking him/her the following=

Smart-jack location – In most cases the Service Provider will deliver the ISDN-T1 or E1 circuit in the same room as the PBX and Data Equipment, but in some cases they won’t follow the same guidelines. Depending where the fiber terminates or MUX the Service Provider will just drop the circuit in the same general area, leaving you with no choice but extending the T1/E1 circuit yourself.

Smart-jack Distance – 300 feet is the maximum cable distance, if the location is farther a repeater must be installed.

Smart-jack Identification – There are two numbers associated with the DS1 circuit, a LEC ID which normally belongs to the owner of the cable, here in the US normally that will be AT&T or Verizon. The other number listed in the smart-jack is related to the Service Provider or Carrier, e.g. Windstream, Earthlink, AT&T, Verizon, Xo Communications, Comcast, Cox, among others.

The LEC ID starts with Prefix/Service Code & Modifier/SerialNumber/Suffix/CO Code/Segment, e.g. 24/HCGS/555555/123/MS/1.

Service Provider ID will contain Prefix/Facility Type/Location CLI Code/Z Location CLLI Code, e.g. 200/T1/FLORIDA000/STH00XX

ISDN-T1 Preliminary test – Once you have identified the T1/E1 jack, it is time to have it tested by the LEC to make sure the cable and smart-card are good. Utilizing a loop-back key they can test the circuit by sending frames and stressing the pipe.

L2 and L3 parameters – In order to configure the DS1 to match the same parameters you must ask the following=

Switch or Protocol Type – NI2 it is the most common utilize nowadays, but from time to time you might find AT&T Custom protocol (Call By Call or CBC) with Software Defined Protocol or SDN.

Frame Format – ESF (Extended Superframe) is the leading frame format.

Line Code – B8ZS is what you are looking for.

DID Range – This is a block of numbers offered to the customer whenever the customer buy a bundle or package. The numbers come from 20 to whatever the maximum range the Service Provider can offer. A couple of weeks ago I turned up 300 numbers on a single ISDN-PRI circuit.

Digits Sent – How many digits is the Service Provider sending you. In my experience they normally setup the last 4 digits of the DID. In order to route the calls to their final destination, you must configure each DID to match whatever DNIS digits the Service Provider has configured in their end.

Outbound Caller ID – This can be handled by the Service Provider, or by the Avaya PBX. If the customer is interested on sending each individual DID as the caller id then the CLID must be handled by us (Avaya equipment).

Toll Free Numbers – These are normally pointed to an existing number which in most cases is the office main number. Just make sure that those are transferred over to the new T1/E1 circuit.

7 / 10 /11 / 011 / 911 – These are dialing plans that you have to understand. The Service Provider have to allow the PBX flag these calls based on their treatment. (Local, Long Distance, International, and Emergency).

Outbound CLID Names – The PBX can not send names only numbers. The Service Provider is responsible of inserting the name for any outbound calls.

 

2.-System Preparation

To avoid surprises, you should pull a list of the system inventory or schedule a visit to verify that they PBX has the correct hardware and software available. These are the elements that you should look for=

Card Slots – Even-though it might sound like a no brainer you will be surprise the places I’ve serviced where they don’t have an open slot in the system to install the DS1 card. For both Avaya Aura and IP Office you need to ensure that you have an available slot to install the T1.

T1 Card – For Avaya Aura MM710 or TN464, for IP Office a daughter card is needed.

Licensing – IP Office comes with 8 licensed channels, the rest of the B-Channels you have to purchase a license (they come in pack of 8 channels per license.). For Avaya Aura you have to do the same here, increase the trunk capacity by purchasing licenses.

CSU – Although we don’t use them often, they are vital to keep the packets in order. For newer DS1s they might be embedded CSUs included.

Loop-back keys – These might be handy if you run into Layer 1 issues, and you need to loop the circuit.

Trunk Groups – For larger systems, you have to know if this new circuit will be part of an existing Trunk Group. This will help you be more efficient and careful avoiding downtime when the system is taking live calls.

D-Channels – The norm is one D-channel per circuit. NFAS is another way to configure your trunk group, where a single D-Channel provides signaling to more than one ISDN trunk, providing failover functionalities.

ARS and Route Patterns – Take into consideration that you might need to update these tables.

Other Considerations – Depending on how the call has to be treated there are other tables and patterns that you should be aware of.

On Avaya Aura = Incoming-call-handling-treatment allows you to manipulate the DNIS digits sent by the PSTN by inserting, deleting or changing the call type.

Private or Public Unknown Tables, these can help you configure the outgoing calls and how they should be presented to the remote entity (Service Provider or Networked PBX).

On IP Office – Shortcodes – These can be manipulated from the User, ARS, and System, in some rare cases you might need them in the ISDN-PRI trunk form, especially you have an AT&T – CBC trunk group configured.

3.- Step by step configuration

With all the information in gathered from the Service Provider it is time to get to start configuring the system. For Avaya Aura follow these steps=

T1 Configuration

Add ds1 01A06 (Enter the board address). Update the signaling-mode= isdn-pri, protocol version= a (AT&T Custom) or b= NI2, Near CSU= integrated, finally check that line-coding= b8zs, and framing-mode= esf.

 

Clock Synchronization –  For any ISDN circuits the clock-source is provided by the Service Provider. This configuration is programed under Communications Manager under the  is configured under the “change synchronization media-gateway x”. and for older systems this feature is configured in the Media Gateway itself by running these commands=

Newer Avaya CM Systems – DS1 SYNC PLAN Form

Legacy CM Systems

• set sync interface primary V3 (Enter the MM slot number)
• set sync source primary (Sets the sync source as the primary)

Signaling Group

Add signaling-group 1 (Try to keep the numbering the same across the PBX, for instance if you have a Trunk Group 1, then make the Sig Group 1). Here you have to assign the signaling channel if PRI is implemented. Group Type= isdn-pri, and Primary D-Channel address= board location and 24, e.g 01A1424.

 

Trunk Group-Page 1 – Following the same numbering plan, run the command ‘add trunk-group 1’. The Group Type= isdn, COR=90 (I suggest that you customize a specific Class Of Restriction for Trunks), TAC=81 (Trunk Access Code is use to run traces or depending the group type you might be able to access it directly utilizing this code.), Service Type= Public Network (Refer to the data gathering docs).

 

Trunk Group-Page 2 – By default the trunk-group is set to cyclical hunting, for outbound the calls will try go out from channels 23 to 1, so the provider should send the inbound traffic from reversed (1 thru 23). Depending on the outbound call treatment you might need to modify the ‘Format’ field. e.g pub-unk.

 

Trunk Group-Page 5 – Here you have to enter each individual b-channel number, e.g 001v201 or 01A1401 thru 01A1423.

 

Outbound Routing – Assuming that you have the ARS Analysis tables, Route Patterns setup, another thing you can do to manipulate the outbound-public-unknown tables to out-pulse any programmable number. Keep in mind the Service Provider needs to allow the PBX pass-thru the phone numbers.

 

Inbound Call Routing – To match DIDs or manipulate any incoming telephone number, use the Incoming-Call-Handling-Treatment tables, where you can insert, delete and replace the numbers.

 

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IP Office Configuration ISDN Trunk Configuration

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IP Office – Line Selection

After confirming that you have the licenses installed, proceed by modifying the existing T1/E1 Trunk. To start go to Lines item located in the IP Office Configuration Navigation Pane.

             

IP Office – PRI Configuration

Based on your documentation given by the Service Provider you can start configuring  the ISDN circuit by selecting the Line-Sub-Type from the dropped-down options, in my example= PRI, Then choose the Switch-Type which normally is set to NI2, next you have to enter the total incoming-routing-digits= 4.

Channel Allocation will determine the trunk-group outbound hunt sequence.

Clock Quality= Network for the Primary Clock Source, for any secondary ISDN Circuit you must configure it as ‘Fallback’.

CSU Operation= checked

In this example you see how the Provider= AT&T with a Switch Type= 5ESS

 

IP Office B-Channel Configuration

Select the ‘Channels’ tab from the PRI form, then highlight the first channel, press the ‘SHIFT’ key on your keyboard and scroll down until you have selected all 23 channels, then select the ‘Edit’ radio button located on the right side of the window. This will allow you to configure all 23 channels in a single form. Configure the Trunk Group for inbound, outbound, and change the ‘Admin’ state from out-of-service to In-Service.

 

IP Office – Call by Call Configuration with SDN services.

For AT&T Custom Protocol with Software Defined Network (SDN) configuration, you can configure the Line Type as 5ESS or 4ESS, matching the Provider’s switch configuration. Follow the same steps from above when configuring the B-Channels, then from the dropped-down select ‘Call by Call’ under the Service option, as shown below. Keep in mind that CBC can also be changed to SDN, MegaCom, etc. Refer to the Service Provider.

IP Office – Call by Call Configuration on a SDN – Part 2

Now that you have the B-Channels configured, the next step is configuring line-shortcodes as shown below. These will allow the IP Office to flag each outbound calls with CBC flag.

 

IP Office – Incoming Call Routing

When configuring blocks of incoming DNIS digits or DIDs you can use the MSN Tool, located under the Manager app/Tools/MSN Configuration.

MSN/DDI= 1298 (DID Number), Presentation Digits= 4 (total of sent digits), Range= total amount of DIDs, Destination= User (extension), Line Group= 0 (Trunk Group number).

 

IP Office – Incoming Call Route (ICR)Tables

For minimal configuration you can go through the Menu Pane, right-clink on ICR, and fill out the following fields=

Line Group ID, Incoming Number, and Destination. If you are using Time Profiles you can also incorporate them here, as well as routing a specific call to dedicated destination by completing the ‘Incoming CLI’ field.

 

IP Office – Outgoing Call Routing

Shortocodes is how the IP Office system controls outbound digit dialing. To learn more about them head over to this post= Shortcodes Simplified . 

 

 

4.-Preliminary Testing

Before you start testing, check if the SP has performed a stress test on the new ISDN Circuit, and there is L1 communication between the smart-jack and LEC.

Avaya Aura – Connect the T1 cable, then status both the Signaling and Trunk Groups.

IP Office – Verify that Port 9 on the Daughter card has the LED lit green, which means the D-Channel is up and operative. Then proceed to status the B-Channels by going through the SSA/Trunks/Line 1 (PRI Line)

 

Configure test numbers – With both the signaling channel and b-channels operating fine it is safe to say that Layer 1 is working like it should. The next test you should perform is an inbound test by configuring a temporary DID given to you by the Service Provider.

Outbound Testing – Make a local, LD, Intl, and 911 call to ensure all works fine.

5.-Cut to service

On the cut-date try to have all parties involved in a conference call. Have the NOC engineer responsible to configure the ISDN circuit on the phone as well.

Test sporadically the new numbers (or ported numbers). Try to leave the Fax machines, Fire and Burglary alarms out of the PBX. Ask the Provider if they allow fax transmission through their network.

 

When troubleshooting slips, which error codes do you look for?