Lync Inbound Normalization Rules

Back in OCS R2 it was possible to apply a Location Profile with a specific set of Normalization Rules to a Mediation Server for inbound normalization. Why do we need to do this? To get inbound calls into E.164 format for reverse lookups against users Tel URI’s.

The same configuration is still possible but in a slightly different way in Lync. As everyone probably knows by now the Mediation Server went through a number of changes with Lync along with the ability to talk to multiple gateways at the same time. This means that instead of applying a Location Profile to a Mediation Server, we now apply a Dial Plan to a Gateway in Lync. Of course you do not need to go this granular but if you have a multiple site deployment you may require different normalization rules on different gateways. This might occur when you are sending four digit extensions to Lync and you have an overlapping dial plan on two different PBX’s connected to two different gateways.

Figure 1. Dial plan

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As you can see in figure 1 I already have two dial plans with normalization rules but I still want a dial plan for inbound normalization for my gateway.

Figure 2. Selecting Pool dial plan

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I think the new ability to define the different normalization rules really has some great advantages. I no longer have to go to each individual Mediation Server to apply a Location Profile any more for inbound normalization. I can see it all in one place. Here I am going to select Pool dial plan. I can also apply a rule that will affect my entire site rather than on a pool or gateway which is fine if you do not need to be so granular.

Figure 3. Gateway selection

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Here I have selected my gateway. I could have also selected a Pool or SBA to have the same effect but this is not as granular as the gateway.

Figure 4. Create dial plan and normalization rules

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I have kept my normalization rule pretty simple. Basically this rule adds a + to any inbound 11 digit number. If I had a PBX that only sent the last 4 digits of a number I could have appended the rest of the number in a different rule or altered the inherited rule.

Figure 5. Saved uncommitted dial plan

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I have saved my dial plan just not committed it.

Figure 6. Dial plan committed

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Final step I have now committed my dial plan and I am done. Pretty simple really.

Comments welcomed.

VoIPNorm

7 comments:

  1. It'd be great if you can provide information on the below which I think would be good additions to your article to provide more complete information on how this affects other Dial Plans.

    1. Does any type of inbound normalization happen without creating a Dial Plan for a Gateway?
    2. If no to #1, it looks like it's a must to create a Dial Plan for the gateway if for example we only have 4 digits coming in and we need to normalize that to E.164 to match user's Tel URIs so Reverse Name Lookup occurs.
    3. If yes to #1, does the Dial Plan attached to the gateway completely overwrite the inbound normalization that happens to the pool?

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  2. Chris,

    I have gone back and forth with Aamer on this and have PSS case opened. However with Cisco MGCP controlled environment integrated with Lync, there is an issue with this approach. Even though I have created Site level dialplan for HQ and BR, when the call comes for Br, it always uses HQ dialplan. By doing Lync logging I can see the phone-context parameter is always of HQ and not of Br. I even tried creating Registrar and PSTNgateway dial plan, but still no luck.

    Any idea?

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  3. Great thoughts you got there, believe I may possibly try just some of it throughout my daily life.






    Inbound Call Center

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  4. Hey Cris,

    I would like to create Inbound Normalization rule for my IVR. We do not have DID number for all user so I am going to use IVR DID for all user & for IVR & below are the details,

    IVR Number (e.g.)- +12345678901x4000
    User NUmber 1 - +12345678901x4001
    User NUmber 2 +12345678901x4002
    User NUmber 3 +12345678901x4003

    so could you please provide one example for inbound normalization rule for IVR number in my case its (DID x extension number) i.e. +12345678901x4000

    Thanks in advance

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  5. ^(12345678901)( x)(\d{4})
    +12345678901;ext=$3

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  6. Hi Norm. Should this also apply for the calls to the mediation server? My current problem is that we have normalization rules applied on the pool containing the GW(callmanager) that changes the 0 to + But when dialing in from PSTN to online meeting it is displayed as "Guest" and with 0

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  7. thanks for me its works well.........

    my rules for tel number plus 4 digit extension

    ^(811146\d{4})$

    thanks

    Atif

    ReplyDelete

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