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In this post we will lean some of Cisco CUCM wildcards. They are used in route patterns and translation patterns.  I lay down the most popular CUCM wildcards in the paragraphs below. the X wildcard The X wildcard replaces only one character. For example, 587X pattern has 10 combinations: from 5870 to 5879. The @ wildcard The @ wildcard is a macro. Each time you use it, CUCM replaces it with a number of route patterns that correspond to the numbering plan you chose. For example, if you choose to use the North American numbering plan with the @ wildcard, CUCM will internally generate some US route patterns such as the following: [2-9]11 [2-9]XXXXXX [2-9]XX[2-9]XXXXXX 1[2-9]XX[2-9]XXXXXX 011! So let’s say you have two gateways that you want to use for egress calls. You assign the first gateway to the @ route pattern and the second to the XXXXXXX route pattern. The call will be routed through the first gateway, because there is the route pattern [2-9]XXXXXX, which is a better match t...

Discard Digit Instructions -or DDI- are a set of commands you can apply to a called party number. Usually, DDI are applied to route patterns that include the @ wildcard. However, you still can apply them to route patterns that contain the “.” wildcard. In addition, using DDI is relative to a numbering plan. So in CUCM, by default if you are going to use the various instructions provided with DDI, you are applying them to the North American dial plan. DDI is the first set of called party transformations that is executed, followed by the Called Party Transform Mask and Prefix Digits. Configuring Discard Digits at the route pattern level Go to Call Routing –> Route/Hunt –> Route Pattern Click on Find to list all available route patterns click on the route pattern for which you’d like to add Discard Digit instructions Under Called Party Transformations , you will find the Discard Digits menu As you can see on the screenshot, there are a lot of options in the Discard Di...

Here is a collection of the official end user guides (or manuals) of the major Cisco IP phones on the market. I will only mention the manuals for the latest Cisco Unified Communications Manager versions and Cisco Unified Communications Manager Express versions. Cisco IP phone 7942G manuals Cisco IP phone 7942G end user guide for CUCM 9 Cisco IP phone 7942G end user guide for CUCM 8.6 Cisco IP phone 7942G end user guide for CUCME 7.1 Cisco IP phone 7945G manuals Cisco IP phone 7945G end user guide for CUCM 9 Cisco IP phone 7945G end user guide for CUCM 8.6 Cisco IP phone 7945G end user guide for CUCME 7.1 Cisco IP phone 7962G manuals Cisco IP phone 7962G end user guide for CUCM 8.6 Cisco IP phone 7962G end user guide for CUCME 7.1 Cisco IP phone 7965G manuals Cisco IP phone 7965G end user guide for CUCM 9 Cisco IP phone 7965G end user guide for CUCM 8.6 Cisco IP phone 7965G end user guide for CUCME 7.1 Cisco IP phone 7911G manuals Cisco IP phone 7911G end user guide for CUCM 9 Cisco IP ...

We are going to learn the concept of external phone number masks in CUCM and configure it. On the private network (the IP Telephony network owned by the company), there is no display issues for the calling party. We control that by setting the Alerting name and the Internal Caller ID. However, when the call leaves the private network, the PSTN has a different view. The Alerting Name and Internal Caller ID fields become useless. With QSIG and DMS versions of PRI, the identities of the call parties (name, number) are transmitted to the PSTN network. But in modern PSTN networks and with today’s voice gateways, we need to carefully define how the calling number is presented to the PSTN. An exception to applying dialing transformations is when users are using fully qualified PSTN numbers between each others. So usually, we need calling party transformations for display purposes across an external network. And here comes the External Phone Number Mask. the External Phone Number Mask (or...

In this blog post I expose the following two features in CUCM: Expected Digits and Num Digits. Expected digits is a feature that allows CUCM to know how many digits it should receive from PSTN or a gateway. This feature is useful in overlapped dialing. Overlapped dialing is when CUCM receives the dialed number of an inbound call digit by digit. Suppose we have an analog gateway such as the VG202, equipped with one FXS port set as POTS, in port type. This port connects to a POTS phone. And when the phone sends the dialed digits, the gateway (and CUCM behind it) could not know how many digits to expect. So it is useful to set the Expected Digits value. Num Digits is more powerful than Expected Digits. It is the number of digits that CUCM needs to extract from the called number of an inbound call, in order to make  a routing decision. the digits in Num digits are taken from right to left. For example, if you set Num Digits to 4, and the called number of an inbound call is 9441523, then CU...

The concept of Callmanager route filters is associated with a famous route pattern wildcard: the @ symbol. As a brief review, a route pattern written in the <something>@<something> implicitly tells CUCM to generate as many route patterns as the numbering plan needs. For example, if you choose the North American numbering plan, and you create a route pattern in that format, CUCM will generate patterns for : local calls, 10-digit calls, long distance 11-digit calls, international calls, service calls,… And all that without your intervention. So what is the problem? The problem is that, given all these patterns, any call will be possible and your users will be able to call their pen pals from The Himalayas. And your company does not like that very much. The solution is to use callmanager route filters to –as its name implies – allow specific route patterns and filter the rest. What this means is, as soon as you create a route filter and apply it to a @-based route pattern, all...

Call classification is a concept related to route patterns and to toll fraud. We will discuss toll fraud in a separate post. Call classification puts a call into one of two categories: OnNet or OffNet. In its simple form, an OnNet call is a call that lands in the same company network. On the opposite, an OffNet call is one that usually lands on the PSTN network, thus may charge some communication fees. However, call classification not only classifies an outbound call, but also classifies the calling party, the called party, and the intermediate device (gateway or trunk) involved in the call. In CUCM, Call Classification is a a drop list that has the following values OnNet OffNet Use System Default (available only for gateways and trunks): this option means that whatever is configured in the Call Classification service parameter will be chosen. Its defaut value is OffNet. A construct that relates to Call Classification also is the magic Provide Outside Dial Tone checkbox. The Provide O...