PATTON 4114 advice

[SmackBangGollop]

Hi there. Would somebody be kind enough to either point me towards information or give me a brief explanation as to how 3CX operates with a Patton SN4114.


*To be clear, there are two Patton's, both set up using the built in feature in 3CX 11*.



We have 8 analogue lines here, so I have two Pattons. I see on the dialing rules that you can point outbound calls to either Patton but how to you point them towards specific ports? I'm not really that bothered about specific calls going out on specific ports, as they are all withheld numbers, but I would like to have some control over what lines it chooses first.


Am I to assume that if you send the call to the first Patton, then it will attempt a call on port 1, and if that is busy will try port 2? then if all ports are busy the second route in 3CX kicks in and the call is sent to the second Patton, trying a call on port 1 again?


If this is correct then I will put the numbers that I want to be free the most on ports 3+4 of the second Patton.


I'm sure you can get very involved with the programming of the Patton its self, but as long as it works as I think it does, I don't think I will have to get that deep into it.


Thanks for your time.


Daniel

 

[leejor]

I assume that you've read over the guide...

http://www.3cx.com/voip-gateways/patton-smartnode.html

In this example, one trunk group was created, with four members. Using the trunk group name in the outbound rules will send up to four calls to the gateway. The gateway will keep track of busy or idle lines. If you create a second gateway, using a different name, it can be put in the outbound rules as a second choice. This means that outbound calls will not use it until all lines on the first gateway are busy. So, this second gateway could be used for incoming calls, and then as overflow outbound.

Depending on the make/model, some gateways allow you to set each port (PSTN line) as an individual trunk ( generally requires manual configuration), which would be useful if you didn't already have a second gateway and wanted to "restrict" calls to certain outbound PSTN lines. Some gateways make use of a prefix (stripped off at the gateway) to select which PSTN line the call is to route out on.

 

[SmackBangGollop]

Thanks for your reply Leejor, I am fully aware of everything you have said, but what I would like to know is does anybody know if the SN takes a logical route of picking the first available port when making an outbound call, or whether it is random?

 

[leejor]

Someone on the forum probably does have the answer (and will come forward). Have you attempted to contact Patton, I'm not sure if they have a forum, to ask that?

I can't see it being random, I would assume it is in order, skipping over,of course, busy channels. There are four choices (when you are given that option) that are commonly used in telephony...sequential, de-sequential, least idle, or most idle.

If you are using two gateways, with the second one (the one with your incoming lines which I assume are in a hunt group from your provider), being overflow when all four are in use on the first gateway. then is should not really matter which order the calls went out. If you had six outgoing calls, then you could only have two incoming calls, and those would hunt to the first available idle line.

 

[CATE]

Hi there,

Sorry to bother you, but I saw your post in the forum. I'm about to buy a Patton 4114. I'm new to the whole SIP world. With the 4114 and the 3CX system, can you configure that if one port is in use(busy for outgoing/incoming calls), then an incoming call on that port is forwarded to the next port and so on?

Or this is only a thing(PBX service) that the phone company does from their central system? Of course, charging for it...

I'm not clear about that point, I would appreciate any help on this...

Thanks, Regards.

 

[lneblett]

The phone company manages this aspect.

You normally specify a primary number which then represents the line that you would normally have all your advertising, letterhead and other "let the public" know about me. Then the other lines you have are behind the scenes and become a part of a hunt group. When a call comes into the phone company they first attempt to place the call to the primary number, but if busy, then rollover or forward to the next line in the hunt group and try again until they can find an available line by which to complete the call.

When you set this up with the phone company, you most likely want to be certain that all outbound calls, regardless of which line is used, all carry the caller-id of the primary line. Not all providers can do this. You should also discuss the hunt group methodology as some will use a "sequential" method, others a "circular". The sequential method simply looks for an available line, but once it gets to the bottom of the hunt list, it quits looking. A circular will wrap around back to the top of the list.

In most cases this occurs so fast it really makes no difference, but should you have a large hunt group, it could as it is possible that a line could become available back at the top of the group before the search to get to the bottom has been reached.