Cisco CME and TOA 8000 Paging Setup

This year it seems that we have had a lot of equipment failures do to power outages.

This has been hard on the older paging equipment in our schools resulting in the need for new equipment.

We approached our audio experts for a solution that was network accessible and would still work with a Cisco CME based phone system if one was installed at that location at a later time.

Their solution was a TOA 8000 system which can be controlled and monitored over the network.

Unlike the previous TOA 9000 and Bogen PCM units that connected using an FXS port, the TOA 8000 requires different hardware.

The FXO port (same hardware that we use to connect to our telco provider phone lines) on the Cisco CME 2921 connects into the NL-8000AL interface unit.  The Cisco paging dial peers only required a port change and no changes were made to the Singlewire LPI software configuration we had set up for the Bogen equipment. (see previous post)

We found the TOA 8000 required a setting of a 1 second delay before paging.  If the delay was set to zero, the generated DTMF tones could be heard over the speakers on random occasions.

Dealing with Multiple Incoming Phone Lines - Cisco CME

When our first Cisco CME system was installed, we were told that there wasn't a way to report nuisance calls or block outgoing caller id because the incoming phone lines were programmed into trunk groups.

About 4 years and 16 CME systems later, the IT Department is now deploying the CME systems and we are still asked if this is possible.  Mostly to report nuisance calls, the odd time to block outgoing caller id.

Today I have found a solution to this question for standard phone lines.  This will not work on DID calls as they are only incoming.

In our previous CME configuration, the incoming lines were all forwarded to one DN and appeared as one DN on the main admin phone.  This confused some staff as they were used to having 3 or more line buttons on the Nortel, Norstar or Meridian phones.

In smaller locations, with only 2 or 3 phone lines, we could go with the individual DNs showing up on the phone as individual DNs and then forward to one voice mailbox.  However, some years the Admin assistants are moved around from location to another location so we want to keep things as consistent as possible in our 30+ locations.

In the new configuration...

The incoming calls will forward to their own separate DN (5xx) via the connection plar command in the voice port configuration.

The 5xx DN will then forward onto the main DN (5400).

Example: A call comes in on Line 1 (FXO 0/0/0), it will show up as a forwarded call from the 501 DN.

 



Now let's say this was a prank call and they want to report it to our telephone provider.

In the old configuration, it would pick the first available phone line out, which would be Line 4...3...2...1 in the example below.  Very often the outgoing call would not pick the same line that the call came in on, so that increase the chances of not working or a false report being filed.

In the new configuration...
The person sees that the call came in on L01 5551212 (501) aka Line 1
Now to report the call to the provider, they dial 9501*57 and the call goes out on Line 1 (FXO port 0/0/0)  and *57 is dialed. (Based on dial-peer voice 500 pots)

If the call came in on L03 5551214 (503) aka Line 3, they would dial 9503*57 and the call would be handled by dial-peer 502

The new 5xx dial peers also allows for calling out on the specific line to do troubleshooting with service providers.

Here's the new configuration.

voice-port 0/0/0
 trunk-group pstn-outgoing 4
 connection plar 501
 description FXO Out 5551212 via 501

voice-port 0/0/1
 trunk-group pstn-outgoing 3
 connection plar 502
 description FXO Out 5551213 via 502

voice-port 0/0/2
 trunk-group pstn-outgoing 2
 connection plar 503
 description FXO Out 5551214 via 503

voice-port 0/0/3
 trunk-group pstn-outgoing 1
 connection plar 504
 description FXO Out 5551215 via 504

dial-peer voice 500 pots
 description ** Line 1 5551212 **
 destination-pattern 9501.T
 port 0/0/0

dial-peer voice 501 pots
 description ** Line 2 5551213 **
 destination-pattern 9502.T
 port 0/0/1

dial-peer voice 502 pots
 description ** Line 3 5551214 **
 destination-pattern 9503.T
 port 0/0/2
dial-peer voice 503 pots
 description ** Line 4 5551215 **
 destination-pattern 9504.T
 port 0/0/3

ephone-dn  296
 number 501
 description Line 1 5551212
 name L01 5551212
 call-forward all 5400

ephone-dn  297
 number 502
 description Line 2 5551213
 name L01 5551213
 call-forward all 5400

ephone-dn  298
 number 503
 description Line 3 5551214
 name L03 5551214
 call-forward all 5400

ephone-dn  299
 number 504
 description Line 4 5551215
 name L04 5551215
 call-forward all 5400

ephone-dn  300  octo-line
 number 5400
 pickup-group 1
 label 5400
 description IT South
 name IT South Office
 allow watch
 call-forward noan 85400 timeout 16
 corlist incoming call-International
 night-service bell

Click the video below to see it in action.