Voice routing in Lync Server 2010 is a
complex melding of many different objects. These objects are linked in
a way that determines exactly how a call is routed. Voice routing
comprises the following objects:
Dial Plan—
Dial plans are the equivalent of location profiles from Office
Communications Server. A dial plan contains a set of normalization
rules to convert dial strings to a routable format and is assigned to
users.
Normalization Rules— Associated with a dial plan and converts the digits a user might dial into a common format that is then routable by the system.
Voice Policies— Determines what voice features users are allowed to use, such as call forwarding, simultaneous ringing, and call transfer.
Routes— Routes are used in Lync Server to direct calls through a specified gateway or a set of gateways.
PSTN Usages—
Usages are a class of call that is then associated with voice policies.
If a user’s voice policy does not contain a specific PSTN usage, the
user is not allowed to place the call.
Gateways—
Gateway objects are a PSTN media gateway, an IP-PBX, or an Internet
Telephony Service Provider. Any object that Lync Server sends calls to
can be considered a gateway.
Trunk Configuration—
A logical connection representing the connection between a Lync Server
and a PSTN gateway, IP-PBX, or Internet Telephony Service Provider.
Translation Rules—
Rules associated with a trunk configuration to manipulate dial strings
before being sent across a trunk. These rules can manipulate the dial
string sent across the trunk if the opposite end is not capable of
handling E.164 numbers.
1. Dial Plan
A dial plan in Lync Server 2010 is associated with
users and contains a set of normalization rules. Normalization rules
are used to convert dial strings entered by users into a format
routable by Lync. Dial plans can differ based on region or site
depending on how users are used to dialing digits. Additional dial
plans are usually created to accommodate different dialing habits based
on sites or users. To create a new dial plan, use the following steps:
1. | Open the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel.
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2. | Click Voice Routing.
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3. | Click Dial Plan.
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4. | A dial plan can be scoped to apply at the site level, to a specific pool, or even just to a specific set of users. Click New, and then select Site dial plan, Pool dial plan, or User dial plan.
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5. | Enter a simple name for the dial plan to uniquely identify it within the topology.
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6. | Enter a Description for the dial plan.
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7. | If the dial plan is associated with a Dial-in Conferencing Region, enter the name of that region.
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8. | If users need to use any kind of prefix to dial external numbers, enter those keys in the External access prefix field.
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9. | Click OK to save the dial plan.
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Normalization rules can be added or modified at any time.
2. Normalization Rules
Normalization rules are associated with a dial plan
and provide a way for administrators to translate dial strings users
enter into full E.164 format. For instance, a country code and local
area code might be automatically appended when a user tries to dial
only seven digits. Many organizations used four- or five-digit internal
extensions, and normalization rules can convert those dial patterns to
a full E.164 number.
Administrators can either define the normalization
rules using regular expressions or using the Normalization Rule tool.
To create a new normalization rule, use the following steps:
1. | On the Edit Dial Plan screen, click the New button in the Associated Normalization Rules section.
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2. | Provide a name for the rule and description for the rule.
Note
This example uses the Normalization Rule tool, but
for more advanced pattern matching, click the Edit button at the bottom
of the screen to manually enter the matching pattern and translation
rule using regular expressions.
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3. | In the Starting digits field, enter the beginning digits of the string to be matched.
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4. | Specify a Length
of the string to be matched. Options include matching at least a
specific number of digits, exactly a certain number of digits, or any
number of digits.
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5. | Specify a number of Digits to remove after a string matches the starting digits and length. These digits will be removed from the left side of the number.
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6. | Specify Digits to add after the selected number of digits have been removed.
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7. | If the pattern matches numbers that are internal to the organization, check the box Internal extension.
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8. | Click OK to save the translation rule and click OK again to save the trunk configuration.
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3. Voice Policies
Voice policies in Lync Server 2010 are a way of
controlling features and calling abilities of users. Voice policies are
assigned to user accounts through a global, site, or direct method. The
following options are available when creating a voice policy:
Enable call forwarding— Enables users to forward calls to other users or devices.
Enable delegation— Enables users to specify other users to answer and place calls on their behalf.
Enable call transfer— Enables users to transfer calls to another user.
Enable call park— Enables users to place a call on hold and pick it up from another phone or location by dialing a call park orbit number.
Enable simultaneous ringing of phones— Enables users to simultaneously ring another user or phone number.
Enable team call— Enables users to answer calls on behalf of another team member.
Enable PSTN reroute—
Enables users to place calls to be rerouted to the PSTN network when
the Wide Area Network (WAN) network is congested or unavailable.
Enable bandwidth policy override— Enables users to avoid limitations imposed by Call Admission Control policies.
Enable malicious call tracing— Enables users to report malicious calls.
To create a new voice policy, complete the following steps:
1. | Open the Lync Server 2010 Control Panel.
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2. | Click Voice Routing.
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3. | Click Voice Policy.
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4. | A voice policy can be scoped to apply at the site level or pool level. Click New and then select either Site policy or User policy.
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5. | If creating a Site policy, the name field is populated automatically and cannot be changed. Enter a description for the policy.
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6. | Select or do not select Enable call forwarding.
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7. | Select or do not select Enable delegation.
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8. | Select or do not select Enable call transfer.
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9. | Select or do not select Enable call park.
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10. | Select or do not select Enable simultaneous ringing of phones.
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11. | Select or do not select Enable team call.
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12. | Select or do not select Enable PSTN reroute.
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13. | Select or do not select Enable bandwidth policy override.
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14. | Select or do not select Enable malicious call tracing.
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15. | Click OK to save the voice policy. Associated PSTN usages can be added or modified at any time. Figure 1 displays a sample voice policy that allows all these features.
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Alternatively, the Lync Server Management Shell can be used to create a new voice policy:
New-CsVoicePolicy –Identity <Name> -AllowCallForwarding <$True | $False>
-AllowPSTNReRouting <$True | $False> -AllowSimulRing <$True | $False>
-EnableBWPolicyOverride <$True | $False> -EnableCallPark <$True | $False>
-EnableCallTransfer <$True | $False> -EnableDelegation <$True | $False>
-EnableMaliciousCallTracing <$True | $False> - EnableTeamCall <$True |
$False> -PSTNUsage <List of PSTN Usages associated with the policy>
