Do Not Disturb on IP phone

[Frank D]

Hi,

I think it is great that 3cx V14 does integrate the "Do not Disturb" functionality of the IP phone (desk) and the 3cx-phone (softphone). http://www.3cx.com/blog/voip-howto/do-not-disturb/
As fas as I know the integration is one way at the moment: If you press DND on the phone the status "Do Not disturb" is set in 3cx" and the phone does show the DND Icon/LED (depending on phone model). But the phone doesn't show DND, if the status is changed on the pbx (e.g. via a softphone or via office hour rules). This is the way it is, or do I miss something? We are just migrating to V14.
The pbx has the login and IP of the phone and could change the status to DND, so the phone would show (or stop showing) the DND status. I am not saying it's easy to implement. 3cx could push the current state of art of open standards pbx of integration of presence status with IP phones.

One more topic: Maybe you could do the same for a "transfer" status. IP Phones are able to send dialcodes (or do something else) if the "transfer" key is pressed. And they show a "status symbo"l just like DND. If 3cx could provide a similar functionality and assign a third status to the "transfer" key, common on IP phones, maybe "away". This way phones would support the switching between 3 different stati, without any modifications by the phone manufactures needed.

I am thinking about a "idea" post, but I want to get some feedback first.

 

[lneblett]

You are correct about the DND aspect. Some phones do allow for the setting of their DND to correspond to the 3CX dial code for same. When done, the phone and the PBX are presumably in-sync with one another and respesent same in the various displays.

When set using a dial code at the PBX, there are some assumptions that may come into play:
1.The phone and 3CX are able to use the same code to indicate DND and have been duly provisioned as such. In the SIP realm of things, this would most likely be accomplished by a SIP Publish and a SIP Refer message.
2. If the phone and 3CX have not been provisioned accordingly, then only the phone will be in a local DND state and a push will not be possible as 3CX will not be aware of the phone's state. The code that the phone would have sent would be meaningless to 3CX if not the same.
3. If set automatically by the system due to a scheduled change, then the SIP Publish and Refer might still be usable.


I like the idea,

As far as the other aspect - "away", I am not sure I follow. If the intent is to get some indication on the phone as to its status, then it does require work by the phone manufacturers to support. Assuming one uses programmed DSS keys, auto scheduled changes or simply dials the desired code, then does it not stand that the phone has to be able to understand what the code represents and then associate that into the applicable display indication? 3CX is not able to dictate to the phone how a display indication should appear unless there is an already defined action within the phone's firmware that is associated to the message being received - like DND. So, if 3CX sends a message to a phone indicating that the phone is now in the "away" status, the phone is the one that has to interpret the message and react accordingly.

I do not believe there is a standard that is used by all parties that defines the allowable statuses. 3CX allows for some to be user defined. This suggests that in the event that a system has various manufacturers' phones in use, 3CX would have to know and be able to accommodate each phone's requirement in order to send the appropriate message. I think this is why the presence is only shown using the 3CX softphone as it is the one constant that 3CX controls. There are various standards used by IM clients and others, but I do not think (could be wrong) that any one of these has been integrated into the hardware/software relationship between a hard IP phone and IPPBX as of yet.