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Notes from March 2022

Planning and Designing a PSTN Solution

  • Teams Phone System

    • Enables PBX funcionality in the cloud (Private Branch Exchange)
    • Enables features like
      • Call transfer
      • Call forwarding and simultaneous ringing
      • Call park and retrieve
      • CallerID
      • Cloud voicemail
      • Any manym ore
    • Requirement for any Teams PSTN solution (Public Switch Telephone Network)

  • PSTN Connectivity Solutions

    • Calling Plans
      • Use Microsoft cloud infrastructure for PSTN connectivity
    • Direct Routing
      • Bring your own carrer using Session Border (SBC)
      • If you want to use your current provider
    • Operator Connect
      • Third party solution that brings PSTN connectivity to Teams
      • SBC is managed by a third party and they take care for it for you

  • Calling Plans

    • All-in-the-cloud solution where Microsoft is your PSTN carrier
    • Available in two plans:
      • Domestic Calling Plan
      • Domestic and International Calling Plan
    • Available in multiple countries
      • Availability depends on user location, not tenant location
    • Calling Plan Minutes Example
      • US Domestic - 3000 minutes
      • US Domestic and International - 3000 domestic, 600 international
      • Minutes are pooled by the tenant level
      • Users share minutes based on location and Calling Plan Type
      • Minutes are for outbound calls
        • Inbound is for “free”
    • List from MS available to see for which countries calling plans are available

  • Direct Routing

    • Bring-Your-Own-Carrier

    • Use certified Session Border Controller

      • Vendors provide information how to setup SBC with Teams

    • Keep phone numbers with current carrier

      • Makes the migration to Teams easier
      • Helps if the contract is still running for a while

    • Integration with existing infrastructure

      • Analog devices
      • Call centers

    • Scenarios

      • Calling Plans not available in country
      • Backup or supplement to Calling Plans

    • Diagram:

      Untitled

    • Operator Connect

      • Telephone carrier manages SBCs and PSTN connectivity
        • Direct Routing as a Service
      • Microsoft Operator Connect program
      • Usefil if:
        • Calling Plans not available in region
        • Preferred carrier participates in program
        • Find a new carrier integrated with Teams

  • Licensing Requirements

    • Phone System
      • Enables PBX capabilities in Teams
      • Requires user to have a base Team license
        • Included in SKUs like M365 Business, E1, E3, and E5
      • Add-on for most scenarios
        • E5 includes Phone System
      • Required for both Calling Plans and Direct Routing
    • Direct Routing requires a Teams license and a Phone System addon license
      • Calling Plan not needed
    • Microsoft 365 Business Voice
      • Small business (under 300 users)
      • Voice license bundle
        • Phone System
        • Audio Conferencing
        • With or without Calling Plan
      • Can be combined with
        • M365 Business
        • M365 Enterprise E1, E3, E5
      • Will be replaced by Teams Phone with Calling plan
    • Teams Phone with Calling Plan
      • New SKU
        • Replaces M365 BusinessVoice for SMBs
      • Single Package
        • Includes Phone System and Domestic Calling Plan
        • Missing the conference licensing from Business Voice
    • Communication Credits
      • Pay or additional calling minutes
      • Minute pool depletion
      • Domestic users make international calls
        • If a user has domestic plan they can be give communication credits for internationalcalls
      • Consumption billing
      • Unlimited licenses
      • Toll-free calling
    • Audio Conferencing
      • Enables dial-in number on Teams meetings
        • Adds a phone number and a conference ID
      • Scenarios:
        • Teams app is not available
        • Meeting is audio only
        • Internet connectivity is limited
        • Dial-out to add users (call-me-at)
      • Add-on license assigned to individual users
        • Included in E5
      • Starting March 1, 2022:
        • Unlimited dial-in capabilities added to M365 and O365 licenses
    • Speciality Licenses

      • Microsoft Teams Rooms

        • Designed for meeting room devices
        • Standard and Premium
        • Premium includes a service where MS manages the Device (Patch, Issue troubleshooting)

      • Commen AreaPhone

        • Includes Team and Phone System lienses

      • Phone System Virtual User

        • Call Queues and Auto Attendants

        Untitled

  • Certified Contact Centers

    • Auto Attendants and Call Queues meet most organization’s needs
    • Some organizations need advanced capabilities
      • Integration with business tools and workflows
    • Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS)
    • Certified Contact Center solution providersthat integrate with Teams
    • Integration Models
      • Connet Model
        • Uses SBCs and Direct Routing to connect to provider solution
      • Extend Model
        • Uses Azure Bots and Graph API to create Teams app
      • Power Model
        • Uses SDK to provide Teams experience inside of customer app
    • Network Topology
      • Network topology includes details about enterprise network
      • Network topology is required for:
        • Location-based routing in Direct Routing
        • Dynamic emergency calling
      • Policy assignments at a network level
      • Network Topology Components
        • Network Subnet
          • Network CIDR ranges where clients are found 192.168.10.0/24
        • Network Site
          • Collection of Network Subnets representing a physical location
        • Network Region
          • Collection of Network Sites over a geographic region
      • Trusted IP Address
        • External IP address of enterprise network
        • Determines if user is inside the corporate network
          • If external IP address is in trusted list, verifies internal subet
          • If no match, then user’s location is classified as unknown
        • Helps determine available voice features

Designing and Configuring Emergency Calling​

  • Overview class

    • Understanding emergencylocations
    • Compare emergencyc alling
      • Static and dynamic
    • Define Location Information Service database
    • Create emergency calling policies
    • Test emergencyc calling

  • Emergency Addresses

    • Teams Client address can be seen in Settings -> Calls -> Emergency location at the bottom

      Untitled

  • Terminology

    • Emergency Address: physical address (60 State St, Boston, MA
    • Place: Floor, building, wing, office number (Suite 800)
    • Emergency Location: Emergency Address and optional Place
    • Registered Address: Emergency Address asssigned to a user
      • Their address of record for their location
      • Only applies to Calling Plans

  • Managing Emergency Addresses

    • Validation ensures address is legitimate
    • Geo codes
      • Used in some countries to help route emergency calls
    • Registered emergency address required for phone number management

  • Static Emergency Calling

    • Applies to Calling Plans and Operator Connect
    • Automatically enabled
    • Required for asssigning or procuring phone numbers
    • Emergency address included in emergencycalls
    • If call is made then it is routed to a Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP)
    • Emergency calling routign depends on country calling network
      • Calls can be screened to determine user location

  • Dynamic Emergency Calling

    • Appliest o Calling Plans, Operator Connect, and Direct Routing
    • Dynamically determining location based on Teams client
    • Overrides any static, registered address
    • Used to determine appropriate PSAP
    • Requires Location Information Service (LIS) database
      • Seperate from Network topology
    • Add trusted IP addresses for corporate network
      • To determine if user is in the office or at home
    • LIS Components

      • Subnet

      • Wireless Access Point

        • Upload of basic identifiers /BSID possible
        • Each Access Point has ist own BSID

      • Switches

        • Uses chassy ID

      • Ports

        • Chassy ID is needed and Ports

      • Direct Routing Configuration

        Untitled

      • Emergenc Policies

        • Available under Voice - Emergency Policies
        • Emergency Calling Policy
          • What happens when a Teams user makes an emergency call
          • Applies to Calling Plans and Direct Routing
          • Notification can be sent to user, group or include another phone number into the call
        • Emergency Call Routing for Direct Routing
          • Control how emergency calls are routed
          • To which SBC should the call be routed

Phone Numbers​

  • Overview
    • Understand different phone number types
    • How to aquire phone numbers
      • Provision from portal
      • Port orders
    • Demos
      • Aquiring phone numbers
      • Managing user phone numbers
      • Submitting requests to the Phone Number Service Center
  • Phone Number Types
    • User or Subscripter numbers
    • Assign to users in the organization
    • Designed for low call volume
      • Higher call volumes are meant to queues
    • Two types
      • Geographic: related to specific area - most common number
      • Non-geophraphic: no relationship to an area - for example in Denmark common
    • Service Phone numbers
      • Used for audio conferencing, auto attendants and call queues
      • Designed for higher call volumes
      • Two types:
        • Toll
        • Toll-free: no cost to caller
      • Can convert between user and service phone numbers
  • Acquiring phone numbers
    • Port Orders
      • Trans phone number to Microsoft Teams
      • Microsoft becomes service provider
      • Port process differes based on country
        • Letter of Authorization (LOA)
      • Full and partial ports
      • Port timing depends on losing carrier
      • Convert user to service after port completion
    • Getting Phone Numbers
      • Calling Plans
        • Teams admin center, Port order, manual request
        • Manual request if its large number of numbers or if you want a certain block
      • Operator Connect
        • Operators website, Port to order, added to tenant
      • Direct Routing
        • Managed by carrier, Assigned using PowerShell

Configuring Phone Policies​

  • Overview
    • Explore Phone System policies
      • Calling policy
      • Caller ID policy
      • Call park policy
    • Configure inbound and outbound call restrictions
    • Create compliance recording policy
    • Managing dialing with dial plans
  • Calling Policy
    • Controls calling features for users
      • Private calling
      • Call forwarding
      • Voice mail
      • Call groups
    • All policies have a Global policy, or custom policy
    • Caller ID Policy
      • Indound
        • Display incoming external phone number
        • Looks for matches in Azure or personal contact
      • Outbound
        • User’s telephone number (default)
        • Anonymous, substitute with service number, CNAM
      • Options
        • Block incoming caller ID
        • Override the caller ID policy
        • Replace the caller ID with - Users number, Service number or Anonymous
        • Replace the caller ID with this service number
    • Call Park Policy
      • Enabled by default
      • User places call on hold
      • Unique code is generatedf or retrieval
      • For example in a department store setting
      • Policy manages code range and timeout values
      • Options
        • Call park - Off / On
        • Call pickup start of range
        • Call pickup end of range
        • Park timeout (seconds)
  • Inbound Call Blocking
    • Block inboundcalls from PSTN at the tenant global level
    • Create number patterns using regex to match incoming calls
      • Match found, call is rejected
    • PowerShell configuration only
      • New-CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern
      • Test-CsInboundBlockedNumberPattern -PhoneNumber 13125551234
        • IsNumberBlocked (True or False)
    • Individual users cannot manage this global list
      • Users can configure personal block list in Teams client
      • Done from Calls - Contacts - Block contact
  • Outbound Call Restrictions
    • Control users from making outbound PSTN calls
    • Control options
      • Internal and Demostic (default)
      • Domestic
      • None
        • Like for conferencing systems
  • Compliance Recoding

    • Allows to record calls and online meetings automatically for retention

    • Capture audio, video, screen share, chat

    • Provided through third-party through Compliance Recording Certification Program

      • Communications Platform APIs

    • Made possible through Recorder (Azure bot)

      • Has a direct connection and is added to the conversation

    • Policy managed through PowerShell

    • Teams versus Compliance Recording:

      Untitled

    • PowerShell commands to configure

      • New-CsOnlineApplicationInstance
        • To create the RecordingBot
        • ApplicationID must be an existing Azure Bot Recording Application
        • Create a resource account (under Voice -> Resource accaunts)
        • User account is blocked
      • Sync-CsOnlineApplicationInstance
        • To sync to Azure AD
      • New-CsTeamsComplianceRecordingPolicy
        • Create a policy
        • A Recording Application needs to be assigned
      • Set-CsTeamsComplianceRecordingPolicy -ComplianceRecordingApplication @(New-CsTeamsComplianceRecordingApplication)
      • Grant-CsTeamsComplianceRecordingPolicy
        • To assign user to Policy
        • Identity can be SIP
  • Dial Plans

    • Translating dialed phone numbers

    • Set of normalization rules defined using regex

    • Used for call authorization andvoice routing

      • Modify extensions into full E.164 numbers
      • Add digits for locald ialing

    • Administration through Teams admin center and PowerShell

    • Dial plan types

      • Service Scoped - Mandatory
        • Country or region-based
        • Automatically always assigned
        • Rules cannot be modified
        • Can be combined with Tenant dial plan
      • Tenant scoped - Optional
        • Customized dial plans
        • Combined with Service plan
        • Global or user applicable

    • Dial Plan Scenarios

      Untitled

    • PowerShell

      • Get-CsDialPlan -Identity US |Select-Object -ExpandProperty NormalizationRules
      • Get-CsTenantDialPlan -Identity Global
      • New-CSTenantDialPlan
      • New-CsVoiceNormalizationRule
      • Set-CsTenantDIalPlan
      • Test-CsEffectiveTenantDialPlan -Identity UPN -DialedNumber
        • Shows the matching rulef or the number

    • Dial Plan Creation

      • External dialing prefix can be attached
      • Normalization can be appliedin GUI in plan
      • Rules can be ranked. After on matches no further processing of the rules

Configuring Auto Attendants and Call Queues​

  • Overview

    • Teams Voice applications
      • Call Queues
      • Auto Attendants
    • Managing resourcre accounts
    • Designing voice applications
    • Hybrid Deployment overview

  • Call Queues

    • Holding area for callers
    • Connects a caller to a group of agents
      • Agents are enterprise voice-enabled (min Phone System)
    • Multiple optionsf or call distribution
    • Agent opt-in or opt-out capability
    • Custom hold music
    • Handle queue overflow or timeouts
    • Routing Methods
      • Attendant Routing: ring all agents at the same time
      • Serial Routing: rings agents one at a time in specific order
      • Round Robin: balances so each agent gets the same number of calls
      • Longest Idle. Routes to longest available agent based on status
    • Additional Configuration
      • Conference mode (new feature)
        • Reduces time for caller/agent connection
        • Not supported when routed from a Direct Routing gateway enabled for Location Based Routing
      • Channel-Based
      • Custm Music on Hold
        • Teams provides default music
        • Upload MP3, WAV, or WMA file

  • Auto Attendants

    • Menu system for routing incoming calls
    • Direct to people, call queues, voice mail or another auto attendant
    • Use service phone numbers for external access
    • Features
      • Text-to-speech or recorded audio
      • Keypad or voice recognition
      • Operator: Can be an external phone number or a call queue
      • Business hours and holidays
      • Set timezone
      • Multiple languages supported
      • Directory search (name or extension)
        • Scope can be set (Include group, exclude group)
    • Menu actions
      • Redirect to operator or person in organization
      • Redirect to Voice app (another auto attendant, call queue)
      • Redirect to Voice mail
      • External phone number
      • Announcement (announcing that office is closed or the way to the office)
    • M365 Group Shared Voice Mail
      • Enabled for voice mail by default
      • Users access shared mailbox to manage messages
      • Define group as voice mail action target
      • Channel-based call queue, use them
        • Team is backed by an M365 group

  • Resource Accounts

    • Disabled user object in Azure AD

      • Sign-in is blocked
      • Dedicated account for each call queue and auto attendant
      • Uses Phone System - Virtual User license
        • Free licenses available
        • When out, then assign regulary Phone System license
      • Can assign service phone numbers to resource account
        • Toll or toll-free
          • Toll-free need communication credits

    • Licensing Resource Accounts

      • Phone System -Virtual User license
        • Free license
        • Enabled Teams Phone System functionality
      • Outbound calling
        • Calling Plan
        • Operator Connect
        • Direct Routing (voice routing policy)

    • Voice Application Design Example

      Untitled

  • Hybrid Deployments

    • Integrate with Skype for Business Server
      • Skype for BusinessServer 2019 or newer supports Cloud Voice features
        • Auto Attendant, Call Queue, Voice Mail
      • Incoming calls from Microsoft PSTN, Skype for Business Server, or SBC
      • Resource accounts can be homed online or on-remises
      • Requires hybrid configuration with Teams and Skype for Business Server
    • Hybrid Resource Account PowerShell
    # Create on-premises resource account for auto attendant or call queue          
    New-CsHybridApplicationEndpoint `
              -ApplicationID <GUID> `
              -DisplayName “Boston Office Auto Attendant” `
              -SipAddress aa-boston-office@globointl.xyz `
              -OU "ou=Boston,dc=globointl,dc=xyz“          
    # Assign an online service number to resource account          
    Set-CsHybridApplicationEndpoint `          
    	-Identity aa-boston-office@globointl.xyz `          -LineURI tel:+14255550100          
    # Assign a Direct Routing or hybrid number to resource account          
    Set-CsOnlineApplicationInstance `          
    	-Identity aa-boston-office@globointl.xyz `-OnpremPhoneNumber tel:+14255550100

Configure Audio Conferencing​

  • Overview

    • Audio Conferencing basics
    • Conference bridge settings
    • Number types
    • Licensing
    • Managing user settings

  • Audio Conferencing Basics

    • Enables users to call into meetings
      • Up to 1000 dial-in attendees
    • Adds dial-in number and conference ID to Teams meetings
    • Scenarios
      • Poor internet connectivity
      • Audio-only meeting
      • Ease of use and convenience
    • Service phone numbers
      • Toll and toll-free
    • Multiple language support
    • Conferencing Bridge
      • Contains list of available dial-in phone numbers
      • Responsible for:
        • Answering incoming calls
        • Prompting for meetings Ids
        • Recording participant names
        • Authenticating using PINs
      • Each conference bridge has a default language
      • Number Types
        • Shared
          • Shared with other Team tenants
          • Cannot change default language
        • Dedicated
          • Dedicated to your tenant
          • Customizable language options
        • Toll-Free
          • Dial in free of charge
          • Uses Communications Credits
    • Operator Connect Conferencing
      • Use phone numbers from third-party providers
        • Must be member of Operator Connect program
      • Scenarios
        • More flexible allocation of numbers
        • Existing contract with carrier
        • Expanded global coverage
    • Outbound Dialing from Meetings
      • Dial-Out / Call-Me-At
      • Conferencing bridge creates an outbound call
      • Scenarios
        • Dial cell phone jor joining meeting audio
        • Add another person to meeting
      • Licensing and minute restrictions considerations
      • Can restrict dial-out using policies

  • Licensing

    • Subscription Licensing
      • Audio Conferencing add-on license
        • Already included in E5 SKU
      • Only required for people scheduling or organizing dial-in meetings
        • Participants can dial-in without license
      • New for 2022
        • Microsoft adds unlimited dial-in for Teams meetings
      • Use Communication Credits for toll-free numbers
    • Pay-Per-Minute Licensing
      • Pay per-minute usage instead of monthlylicense
      • Available onlyt o volume licensing customers
      • More flexibility in pricing versus monthly subscription
      • Inbound calls to toll and toll-free Audio Conferencing numbers
      • Outbound calls placed to external phones from within meeting
    • Outbound Dialing Benefit

      • Each Audio Conferencing license provides 60 minutes of outbound calling per month

        • Pooled at tenant level
        • Based on purchase licenses
        • Only applies to subscription model
        • Applies to Zone A countries

      • Dialing out to non-Zone A countries required Communication Credits

        • Charged perminute of usage

      • Use policies to restrict outbound calling

      • Outbound Dialing Scenarios

        Untitled

  • PowerShell

    • Get-CsOnlineDialInConferencingBridge | Select-Object -ExpandProperty ServiceNumbers
    • Get-CsOnlineDialInConferencingSettings
      • Has additional settings than in in the GUI like MaskPstnNumbersType: MaskedForExternalUsers
      • Get-CsOnlineDialOutPolicy
      • Get-CsOnlineDialInConferencingUser
        • Shows information like ServiceNUmber, TollFreeServiceNumber