[loowee]

Hi there !

I have been installing SIPURA systems for a couple months and I find these systems very handy and easy to deploy, altough they have lotssa minor bugs that take a while to get trough.

Anyway, I have here a client that wants to add a VoIP system between 2 of his office via VPN ( router wrv4400n - linksys ).

I am wondering if there is any special configuration I have to apply to the FXO port ( spa9000 ) I will hook-up to the meridian system and if this is the actual way to do it. I also have spa400s available with 4 POTS ports.

I do not currently have the meridian system model but these old systems are all pretty much the same, dialing 9 to get outside line.

Here is the system setup I am planning to deploy :
- 2 x Router VPN wrv4400n Cisco/Linksys ( One @ each location connected trough cable connection )

- SPA9000 ( same site as the meridian system - FXO1 connected to the meridian like a standard meridian client )

- 1 x SPA901 ( same site as the SPA9000 system - connected to router )

- 2 x SPA941 ( remote site clients connected via VPN to the SPA9000 )

- SPA400 ??? ( Do I need this connected to the meridian instead of the SPA9000 FXO1 - please advise ?? )

that's pretty much it, so my question can be resumed to :

Do I connect the meridian client port to the SPA9000 FXO port or the SPA400 line POTS port and what would be the best config for these ports to weld both meridian and SIPURA systems so they work as one team ??

Thx again, long live VOXILLA !

LoOwEe...
louis.l@domobec.com

[humba3]

If the Meridian is your link to the outside world, then you'll connect another system to it via FXS ports on the Meridian... meaning you need FXO on the other end.
Keep in mind though that the SPA400 isn't such a great gateway - browse the SPA9k forum to see how many people are having trouble with it.. especially with the FXO ports. You'll probably be happier using another gateway (even if it is multiple SPA3ks). That has the additional advantage, that those devices act like real gateways and not hop-on, hop-off gateways. E.g. if somebody calls an extension that has to go to the SPA9k, the SPA400 will immediately answer the call (or after x rings), so the caller will be connected at this point and has to pay for the call, whereas your IP phone has just started ringing... a real gateway only connects the incoming call after the outbound call it makes to an IP device has been answered.

Also note that the SPA9k has no FXO ports.. it has FXS ports.. so while you could still interconnect the two systems, the port on the meridian would need to be a trunk port, not a phone port, and that would probably cause some problems with call routing since you want to have the Meridian as your front system (providing outside connectivity).

I also strongly recommend that you swap out the SPA941 with SPA942s.. I've been told there are some issues with G.729, on the 1 series, plus the 2 series has PoE if you ever upgrade to that, has a display backlight, and another Ethernet port, which keeps cabling cost down as you can put the desktop PC behind the phone.

[loowee]

thx again Humba ! Always a great help !

Sorry it took so long to reply, we have moved our offices lately and we are now back in action !

Ok, so when you talk about meridian trunk ports, do all meridian systems have trunk ports ? It seems we are dealing with a meridian 616 here and I do not see such a port on the main module.

One thing is for sure, we have to integrate the SPA9000 / SPA3102 with the local meridian so what would be the best bet - Putting the meridian on the external incoming PSTN lines or the spa3102s ?

I mean, would it be better to connect the spa3102 as a meridian client or the other way around ?

We have 3 incoming lines and we will use 3 spa3102 or 1 spa400, we need to be able to transfer call from one system's extension to the others client extensions.

Thank you Humba !
Lemme know if you would need any infos I could have forgotten.

[humba3]

I have no idea how Nortel calls their modules.. but an analog trunk port is an FXO port.

o what would be the best bet - Putting the meridian on the external incoming PSTN lines or the spa3102s ?

I very much doubt the SPA9k can get even close to the capabilities of a Meridian system.. so I'd keep that as a frontend for now.

What you really need to figure out is how you can do call routing. If you use the SPA9k as your frontend system, then I know how to set up inter-system calls, but not knowing the Meridian I have no clue on how it would work there (I assume you have some Meridian knowledge or have somebody who installed the system and can provide assistance). In the end, you want the system which is used the most and provides the most flexibility as your front system.

[loowee]

Ok, no problem in putting the SPA system in frontend, I guess I would then be connecting the Meridian into the fxs ports of the SPA9000, is this right ?

Also, on the "call routing" side, you said you had a good script to forward calls ?

Here's what I plan on setting up the 2 systems with SPA9000 in front end :

- Incoming calls would be routed to the extension 100 via SPA3102/SPA9000 -> SPA942 ( ext 100 - Receptionnist - remote extension via VPN )
- 3 other SPA clients would be also remote via VPN
- meridian and all SPA modules ( spa9000, spa3102s ) are local with PSTN lines
- 1 SPA client also local

Basically, the big question is : how can we give the ability to the receptionnist ( spa942 - ext 100 ) to forward calls to meridian specific extensions when meridian system is behind SPA system and where should the incoming lines of the meridian be connected on the SPA system ?

Thanks !
I am very happy to learn there is a possibility with meridian behind SPA...

[humba3]

Umm.. there's one problem with your desired setup: you keep eating up analog lines that interconnect the two systems when you route everything to the attendant.

So perhaps we should first get a layout of the land. How many extensions are there on your Meridian system? And how many analog lines do you have in total? How many simultaneous calls do you want in between the two systems (and keep in mind that if a call comes in to one system, is forwarded to the other system, and transfered back, you need two lines in between the systems).

Also, will every incoming call have to go to the attendant? What if the attendant is not at his/her place (bathroom break, lunch, etc.)?
Are there any features on the old system that you would like to preserve (e.g. an autoattendant, voicemail, callback features, stuff like that)?

[loowee]

Hi Humba !

you keep eating up analog lines that interconnect the two systems when you route everything to the attendant.

Actually, I only want external PSTN calls to be routed to the receptionnist's extension ( ext 100 - SPA942 ).

Here is additional details :

- We have 6 incoming PSTN lines, they will all be connected to a separate SPA3102 or maybe 4 of em on SPA400 but not before they fix the related issues.

- The spa9000 serves these extensions : 100 ( receptionnist , SPA942-remote VPN ), 101 ( random client , SPA942-remote VPN ), 102 ( random client , SPA942-remote VPN )

- the local MERIDIAN system will be connected behind this one but how ?
This system has 6 incoming ports ( lines ) and 16 clients possibility but only serves 8 to 9 clients and uses 4 pstn lines i think.

- I want clients of the SPA9000 to be able to forward calls to the meridian client and other way around if possible.

- The MERIDIAN system offers no known features such as auto-attendant or mailbox but the SPA9000 and SPA400 can easily add these functionnalities to the frontend system, in this case, SIPURA one...

Hope this clairifies lotssa good points, I forget some important details sometimes

Thx !

[loowee]

Basically, the only thing I worry about in this setup is how to connect the meridian as a SPA9000 client, would it be trough the FXS ports of the SPA9000 ?

[humba3]

You won't be able to configure mailboxes for the analog extensions on the Meridian (well, in a way you are but those users will have to dial into aa, be transfered to vm, and have to enter their extension and password.. it's not like on the IP clients where you press one button and are directly asked for the password to the proper mailbox).

Also.. you have 9 extensions on the Meridian, and 3 on the SPA9k.. that's a ratio of 3:1.. so we have to assume that the Meridian gets a 3 times higher call volume.. ideally, it would be the frontend system with PSTN access. However, using an IP attendant makes that whole scenario a lot more complex.

Regardless of where you attach the 4 PSTN lines, we have to assume that a significant amount of inbound/outbound call volume goes across the two systems.. if you attach PSTN to the SPA9k, the calls will then be transfered to a Meridian extension, if the calls come in via Meridian, they are sent across the link to the SPA9k, and with a 9/11 probability back to the Meridian (thus using up two inter-system links).

Can you see where it gets tricky? We need to have quite a few links in between the systems to handle the call volume, and at this point, we still lack information about BHCA und BHCC (busy hour call attempts and busy hour call completions.. so how many people try to make calls and how many get through at the busiest hour.. for most businesses that's somewhere in the morning) and have no idea on the kind of call volume to expect for internal calls (that is directly dependant on how many calls come in, and where we put the PSTN links).

In fact, looking at the distribution of clients, I'd say it's better to keep the attendant on the Meridian.. keep the PSTN lines there as well, and configure the two IP phones with a dialplan where the 9 directly gets you the meridian dialtone (by calling the extension of one of the two FXS ports, which is connected to an FXS port on the Meridian - you said you're using 4 of the 6 FXO ports so that leaves us with just the two we need), and where the two IP phones appear as regular extensions on the Meridian (by assigning that number to one of the two FXS ports on the SPA9k, and then have an immediate callforward to the appropriate IP extension).

This however means you do not get to use a lot of the functionality of the SPA9k, but on the other hand, the systems are transparent to each other, and you don't need to make any investments in inter system links.

Then when you're at the point where you are ready to get rid of the Meridian, you move the meridian clients over (replacing them with IP clients, or connect something like the SPA8k to the SPA9k to get 10 analog phone ports in total so you can use the meridian phones). Come to think of it, if you have regular analog phones on the Meridian, perhaps that's a solution you might want to consider even now.. get a decent 4 FXO port PSTN gateway, the SPA9k as PBX, and connect your 8-9 analog extensions via the two FXS ports on the SPA9k and 8 FXS ports on the SPA8k.

In fact, price wise, that's probably not even different from doing a proper interconnect with enough lines and keeping the attendant on the IP net (if you want to make sure you can serve the 4 PSTN line to full capacity with the attendant taking all calls first, you need 8 or more inter system links.. since you only have two FXO ports left, you either would have to buy an extension module of a size that probably doesn't exist for a 16 extension system, or using up the remaining FXS ports on the Meridian (you have 7-8 left.. which is just barely enough.. with 7 you may run out of means to transfer the 4th PSTN call back).

[loowee]

Hi again Humba !

You won't be able to configure mailboxes for the analog extensions on the Meridian

No problem @ all, all the people needing voicemail will be client of the spa9000.

I think I have managed to get trough to the meridian via the FXS2 of the SPA9000 but Im not sure what to do @ this point. How do I point to a meridian extension automatically ?

you said you're using 4 of the 6 FXO ports so that leaves us with just the two we need), and where the two IP phones appear as regular extensions on the Meridian (by assigning that number to one of the two FXS ports on the SPA9k, and then have an immediate callforward to the appropriate IP extension).

Here's the part im scrathing my head on, how do I assign a meridian extension to the FXS ports of the SPA9000 ? The spa9000 is connected to the meridian on the FXO ports so I guess the people that want to call IP phones from the meridian will have to dial 9, *?*?*?*?

I am finally seeing the light @ the end of the tunnel !

thanks Humba !
2 words... Ge-NIUS !