having recently taken over a couple of call manager clusters I’ve found is useful to take some notes about what I see under the hood to give myself a quick cheatsheet.  I really think Cisco did everything they could to make the CUCM as easy as possible…. if you understand the fundamental components, and the most fundamental component of the unified communications system is the call routing database used to perform digit analysis and direct traffic to the intended destination.

CUCM call routing use the following components:

• Route Pattern (RP)
• Route List (RL)
• Route Group (RG)
• Gateway/Trunk (GW/ICT)

When calling, Cisco phones send their digits to the CUCM where the routing DB is used to direct the call.  Once analysis is complete the call will be routed to the called party.

Routing Patterns make use of wild cards, but it should be noted that the more specific the pattern the higher preference given to that particular entry.  These are fairly similar to Unix wildcards.  Entries can look like this:

• 1208 – An exact number match used for directory numbers that are assigned to a partition and route to a specific Cisco IP phone (SEP001894F90E0A)
• 120X – 1200 to 1209 plus 120* and 120#
• 120[5-9] – 1205 to 1209. Translation patterns used to route unassigned calls to the operator.
• 120[^0-4] – 1205 to 1209 (exclude 0-4).  I don’t think we use these.
• . – Digit stripping and manipulation
• 9.@ – Route pattern used at most companies for outgoing calls where you dial 9
• # – timing out for International calls

In the CUCM take a look at “Call Routing | Route Plan Report” and you will see your current  plan.  They are listed in 5 columns. The first is a graphic representation of  the 4th (Type).  The others are Pattern, Partition and Route Detail.

About Jay Farschman - Jay currently works as a Senior Systems Administrator for an asset management company in Colorado where he works with companies that produce hardware, telecommunications software and financial services.  Jay previously owned a consulting company and provided training and consulting services for three Fortune 500 companies and numerous small businesses where he leveraged Linux to provided exceptional value.

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I ran into a situation where we have to move an office quickly; meaning we will be removing the voice gateway at that office, dropping the circuits and starting fresh in another office.  This isn’t easy.  What do you do to get the DID’s forwarded to a new location.  This is an howto of the process, but first a discussion of my resources.

The central problem is how long it takes to port DID’s to a a new PRI or port a PRI to a new voice gateway.  It’s much faster to individually forward the individual DIDs to a new set of DIDs.

IMPORTANT NOTE – US Telcos are likely not going to allow you to forward individual DIDs to other DIDs unless you have an emergency, like a fire or flood.  In the event of a disaster they will temporarily forward lines in this fashion and I presume quickly ports the DIDs of the PRI/ISDN.  But, without a disaster it’s a 30-45 day process.   If, however, you are porting what the FCC calls a ‘simple’ phone number which is defined as not a part of a PRI/ISDN and only a single number the LNP laws specify that this has to take place in one day.

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