CudaTel Tech Bulletin: Best Practices for Emergency Routing

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1 CudaTel Tech Bulletin: Best Practices for Emergency Routing Description: This document describes recommended best practices for configuring the CudaTel Communication Server for 911 emergency call routing. Introduction: There are a number of things to consider when setting up emergency call routing on a phone system. Among them are: What kind of telephone service is provided (analog phone lines, PRI, SIP trunk)? For SIP trunks, does the provider support E911? Are there multiple locations? What kind of redundancy, if any, is needed? How does the provider handle testing of emergency calls? Once these questions are answered it is easier to put a plan into effect. We will consider a few common scenarios and suggest ways to configure emergency routing. To assign routes, log in to the CudaTel user interface and navigate to Providers > Call Routing. Click Add a routing entry to create a new route. The pre-defined 911 route in the CudaTel is called Emergency (USA). Analog Lines (CudaTel 270B) This is a very simple scenario. The CudaTel 270B can have up to four analog phone lines connected. Assign the Emergency (USA) route to every port which has a phone line connected. Analog Lines (ATA) All CudaTel models can connect to analog phone lines via supported analog telephone adapters (ATAs). Each FXO port on the ATA will have a corresponding SIP provider in the CudaTel user interface. Assign the Emergency (USA) route to each SIP provider for the ATA. PRI Circuits (CudaTel 370B, 470B, 670B) Each PRI circuit will have a corresponding Digital Port in the hardware providers page of the CudaTel user interface. Assign the Emergency (USA) route to each digital port that is connected to a PRI circuit from the telephone company. SIP Trunks (E911) SIP trunks supplied by a VoIP provider generally support Enhanced 911 (E911). The challenge for you as the end user will be to communicate with your VoIP provider and find out how to configure E911. It is critical to get E911 configured before you try testing. If you send a 911 call to a SIP trunk that has not been configured for E911 then you run the risk of incurring significant fees for calling the National Call Center 911 (NCC911). Always talk to your provider before testing 911 calls. Most providers will assist with configuring and testing 911 calls. In a simple one-office scenario you can just assign the Emergency (USA) route to your SIP provider gateway. Multi-office and remote-users are discussed below.

2 Remote Site Configuration The CudaTel Communication Server supports remote site configurations that allow for E911-enabled SIP accounts to provider the correct physical address to the 911 call center. In order to configure a remote site the following requirements must be met: A DID phone number with E911 must be created with the VoIP provider The DID number s E911 configuration must reflect the physical street address of the remote site The remote site will need a static IP address or IP address range. NOTE: the static IP address can be public or non-routable (i.e. RFC-1918) IP addresses, as long as they are consistent. The CudaTel s Sites feature allows it to identify a call based on the source IP address. IP connectivity must be established between the CudaTel and the remote location Once the above requirements have been met you can proceed with configuring the CudaTel. The following is a diagram of the scenario we are describing: Remote Location / Remote Ave Main Office / Main St The following are true for this configuration: SIP Trunk VoIP Provider with E911 on 2 DIDs Main St Remote Ave The main office has the CudaTel. The business primary phone number is All phones in the main office have an IP address in the x range. The remote location has IP connectivity to the main office. All phones in the remote location have an IP address in the x range. The CudaTel has a connection the SIP trunk to the provider. The SIP provider has two DIDs, one for Main St. and one for Remote Ave. The objective of our configuration is the following: 911 calls from the main office should display 123 Main St. to the 911 call center 911 calls from the remote office should display 456 Remove Ave. to the 911 call center No 911 calls from the remote location should show 123 Main St. No 911 calls from the main location should show 456 Remote Ave. Normal non-emergency calls from the remote location should display the main business phone number ( ) and not the DID that is used for E911 at the remote location.

3 With this in mind, the steps needed to complete this configuration are: Add a provider entry for our SIP trunk Add a site entry for the remote location Add a new call type to handle E911 for the remote location Configure outbound call routing rules for the remote and main locations Navigate to Providers > SIP Providers and click New SIP Account. Use the information supplied by the provider to fill out the form. (Additional information is available in chapter 6 of the CudaTel Administrator s Guide.) Click Apply Gateway Settings to save your changes. In the screenshots below our provider is named Example_Provider. Navigate to Configuration > Sites and click Add a site. Name the site Remote Location and select Subnet/IP Address from the drop-down list. Click Create site. The site now appears in the list. Click Add a range and put in the IP address and subnet of the remote office. Our example uses and , respectively. Click Add IP range to complete the operation. Navigate to Providers > Call Routing and click Manage Types. Click New Call Type. Use the following values: Call Type Name: Emergency (USA) Remote Location Match Condition: ^(911)$:::$1;e911_ani= Route Type: Emergency Click Create Call Type to finish the operation. Close the Call Types view. Add the necessary routes. (Click Add a routing entry to create a new route.) Route Type Restriction Destination North America (NANPA) None Example_Provider Emergency (USA) Remote Location Site: Remote Location Example_Provider Emergency (USA) None Example_Provider

4 The following screen shot shows what the completed routes screen looks like: NOTE: the order in which the routes appear in the list is extremely important. The Emergency (USA) Remote Location route must appear in the list before the default Emergency (USA) route appears. If the default Emergency (USA) route appears first in the list then 911 calls from the remote location would match and go out the standard route, giving the 911 call center the physical address of the main office. At this point you are ready to test call routing. Contact your VoIP provider before you make test calls. (See below.) Testing 911 Calls It is vital that 911 calls are tested with the help of the provider. (Barracuda Networks is not liable for failed 911 calls.) Only your telephone company or VoIP provider can verify that 911 calls are working properly. Call your provider s technical support department to arrange for 911 calls to be tested. You can use the script below to make an E911 test call and verify the information that the emergency operator receives. Please note that some localities require you to schedule E911 test calls in advance and will charge penalties otherwise. You should check with your local authorities before placing any unscheduled E911 test calls. Hello, this is a non-emergency call, I'm making a Voice-Over-IP test call. Do you have a moment to verify my emergency information or can we schedule a later time to do so? Did you receive ANI information? What number do you show? (confirm that this matches the caller-id/did number that you expected to send) Were you able to retrieve ALI information? Can you verify the address that is displayed? (confirm that this matches your intended emergency address) Do you show my Call Back Number? (confirm that this matches the caller-id/did number that you expected to send) Does the information on your display appear in the proper fields? (the operator should answer yes, which confirms that none of the information fields appeared ordered incorrectly, e.g. the street number in the city field) Thank you for your time, we may be placing a couple more test calls today...

5 If you or your provider have questions about configuring the CudaTel for emergency call routing please contact technical support at or create a support case online at