Lync Enterprise Voice Configuration

Today I would like to discuss Lync Enterprise Voice and its configuration objects. I want to summarize the functionality of these features and will go into detail in later posts.
The subjects we need to cover with enterprise voice are the following:

• Dial Plans

User dial plan: Can be assigned to individual users, groups, or Contact objects. Voice applications can look up and use a per-user dial plan when a phone-context value of user-default is received. For the purpose of assigning a dial plan, a Contact object is treated as an individual user.
Pool dial plan: Can be created at the service level for any PSTN gateway or Registrar in your topology. To define a pool dial plan, you must specify the particular service (PSTN gateway or Registrar pool) to which the dial plan applies.

Site dial plan: Can be created for an entire site except for any users, groups, or contact objects that are assigned a pool dial plan or user dial plan. To define a site dial plan, you must specify the site to which the dial plan applies.
Global dial plan: Is the default dial plan installed with the product. You can edit the global dial plan, but you cannot delete it. This dial plan applies to all Enterprise Voice users, groups, and contact objects in your deployment unless you configure and assign a dial plan with more specific scope.

• Voice Policy

Determine how you will configure your default Global voice policy. This policy will apply to all Enterprise Voice users who are not explicitly assigned a site-level or per-user policy.
Identify any site-level voice policies you might need.
Identify any per-user voice policies you might need.
Decide which call features to enable for each voice policy.Here a list of call features:

• Call forwarding enables users to forward calls to other phones and client devices. Enabled by default.
• Delegation enables users to specify other users to send and receive calls on their behalf. Enabled by default.
• Call transfer enables users to transfer calls to other users. Enabled by default.
• Call park enables users to park calls and then pick up the call from a different phone or client. Disabled by default.
• Simultaneous ringing enables incoming calls to ring on an additional phone (for example, a mobile phone) or other endpoint devices. Enabled by default.
• Team call enables users on a defined team to answer calls for other members of the team. Enabled by default.
• PSTN reroute enables calls made by users who are assigned this policy to other enterprise users to be rerouted on the public switched telephone network (PSTN) if the WAN is congested or unavailable. Enabled by default.
• Bandwidth policy override enables administrators to override call admission control policy decisions for a particular user. Disabled by default.
• Malicious call tracing enables users to report malicious calls by using the Microsoft Lync 2010 client, and then flags such calls in the call detail records. Disabled by default

Determine what PSTN usage records to configure for each voice policy.

• Route

When a user dials a number, the Front End Server normalizes the dial string to E.164 format, if necessary, and attempts to match it to a SIP URI. If the server cannot make the match, it applies outgoing call routing logic based on the number. The final step in defining that logic is creating a separate named call route for each set of destination phone numbers that are listed in each dial plan.

• PSTN Usage

Planning PSTN usage records consists mainly of listing all the call permissions that are currently in force in your organization, from the CEO to temporary workers, consultants, and contingent staff. This process also provides an opportunity to reexamine existing call permissions and revise them. You can create PSTN usage records only for those call permissions that apply to your anticipated Enterprise Voice users, but a better long-range solution might be to create PSTN usage records for all call permissions, regardless of whether some may not currently apply to the group of users to be enabled for Enterprise Voice. If call permissions change or new users with different call permissions are added, you will have already created the required PSTN usage records.

• Trunk Configuration.

You can configure a trunk between a Mediation Server and one or more of the following to provide PSTN connectivity for Enterprise Voice clients and devices in your organization:

• SIP trunk connection to an Internet telephony service provider (ITSP)
• PSTN gateway
• Private branch exchange (PBX)