10. The Dialplan

I know that some were eager for this part to show up but I had to complete the add station before I can dig more into this. So, let's discuss the dialplan.

First, what is the dialplan? It's nothing more than a table that tells the system what you're trying to dial (it can be an outside number, an extension, the console attendant and so forth). The dialplan is the core of the system as it will tell the system how to behave when the user presses digits. Please note that when you're making an outside call for example you're outside the dialplan as in order to make the call you've instructed to system to "hand out" a trunk port thus getting out of the system.

As a simple definition the dialplan tells the system what are internal extensions and what are external extension (and I know this does not cover all the possibilities but it's the best I can make at this point).

The commands involving the dialplan:

• change dialplan analysis
• display dialplan analysis

There are no add, remove or list commands for the dialplan. The dialplan presents itself under a form of a table with each row defining the closest match to what the user will type. Remember this thing as it's very important... THE CLOSEST MATCH.... You don't have to define everything; you just have to find the rules that cover your dialplan.

Here is an example

The first confusing thing that you notice is that we have 3 groups of dialplan over 12 pages. Avaya programmed this in a manner so we don't have 36 pages of dialplan with 1 group per page. They grouped three groups on one page and gave you 12 pages. Simple, right? 🙂 The easiest way to define each line would be

If the user dials a number that has Total Length digits starting with Dialed String then it means this call is a Call type

Let's dive in. Each group is divided into 3 columns

Dialed String: This is the closest match that we spoke. If let's say you dial the number 7123 and your entry reads the number 7 (with a length of 4), whatever is under that entry will be taken into consideration. If you have 2 rules, one for number 7 and one for number 712 (both with a length of 4) then the 712 rule will be taken into consideration as that one is THE CLOSEST MATCH. Makes sense? Keep on reading it will become more and more clear

Total Lenght: This tells the system when to stop interpreting digits. How many digits does your extension number system have? This is where you'll find out why your company has 5 digit extension, 3 digits or 4 digits. Again, this is on a case by case scenario.  One could have a 4 digit numbering system for numbers starting with 8 and a 5 digit numbering system for numbers starting with 3 (don't see the point of doing it but I’m trying to make a point here).

Call Type: This is an important call. It tells the system what you're trying to do when you dialed the x number of digits number starting with Dialed String. There are multiple options that you can program here (do a change dial ana and press F5 over the Call Type field, you'll see all the options), I’ll cover only 4:

1. ATTD - Attendant
2. EXT  - Extension
3. DAC - Dial Access Code
4. FAC - Feature Access Code
5. UDP - Uniform Dial-Plan Code

EXT(extension)	This is probably the most common entry you'll see and the most generic as well. It will tell the system you're doing an internal call when you're dialing a number of Total Length starting with Dialed String. Looking at the example dialplan, you'll see that this company uses for extensions numbers in the 1000-1009, 1900-1999, 2400-2499, 3000-3999,4000-4999,5000-5999,6000-6999,7000-7999, 8800-8899 (please notice the bolds and also find the entries in the image). Notice that we cannot add an entry for 3000-7999 as there is no way one could express the whole range in a generic way. You could break it in 3xxx,4xxx,5xxx ...
ATTD(Attendant)	There is in the system a special "station" called the attendant. Usually you get the attendant by dialing 0 so here is the entry.
FAC(Feature Access Codes)	Feature Access Codes. Do you know what *31 does on your cell phone? Well, ever thought why is *xx and not 123 for example? Well, someone decided that FAC's in the system will start with * or # and will have 3 digits. Why * or #? Because if you use a number here you won't be using that number for assigning extensions in the system. You cannot have FAC and EXT in the same range, they are incompatible. So in our test dialplan our Feature Access Codes start with either *, #. I deliberately left a mistake in the test dialplan to see if you're catching it.... Go to the answers page to see if you found it or not.
DAC(Dial Access Code)	Another type of access code is what we call a trunk access code - TAC (and yes, I know I wrote DAC on the left :), you'll see why in a sec). You can see that if you're doing a list trunk (your trunks might also have names unlike mine. Notice the TAC next to the trunk number? If enabled you can dial that number and get a dialtone directly on the trunk (like getting on the highway without having to merge, sweeeeettt ...). It's used for identifying trunks and also used for troubleshooting.Now, why is it DAC and not a TAC? The answer is flexibility. A DAC could be either a TAC or a FAC. Most of us thought will find that DACs are used in the system as TACs but remember: because there is no TAC category we have to add it as a DAC. Hope this answers the dialplan questions.
UDP(uniform dialplan)	If you have a system connected to your Avaya system where you have something that will behave as an extension (however it will not be as it will be external to avaya), define it as a UDP number. In this case the number 7575 is a trader turret that has an avaya telephone number associated. Users with an Avaya phone can reach him by dialing 7575. However, because the user is external it's defined as a UDP number (will see how we instruct the system to choose the right path to this system later) and not as an EXT number.

Hope I was able to clear up some of the questions pertaining to the dialplan. Have fun!

For more information, I’ve been able to locate an older document (still ok to use as a reference) from the avaya website. It is called Creating a Multiuser Location Dialplan and you can find it here.