Connections - Inbound Connections

An inbound connection is a collection of one or more trunks used to deliver calls from the PSTN to the customer.  All configuration settings apply to all trunks in the connection.

Key Terminology

Trunks - A trunk is a logical connection between the Peeredge Orchestrator and the customer's IP PBX or SBC.  A trunk is uniquely defined by the combination of the tech prefix (if present), the protocol (UDP/TCP/TLS), the Orchestrator's IP address and source port (5060 for UDP or a random ephemeral port for TCP/TLS (not shown above), and the customer's IP address/FQDN and destination port.

Hunting Method - The Orchestrator supports three distribution methods for delivering calls to a set of two or more trunks in an inbound connection.

    Load Balance -  this method evenly distributes calls across of trunks in the connection.

    Weighted - this method distributes calls based on the relative weight assigned to each trunk.

    Failover - this method distributes calls based on the priority assigned to each trunks.  The lower the number the higher the priority.

Service Plan - The inbound service plan associates the connection with one or more rate decks (US & Canada DID, US & Canada Toll Free, International DID, International Toll Free) used to determine the rate (i.e. cost) for each established call.  All connections must be associated with an inbound service plan.  The configuration details of the service plan are not viewable from the Enterprise Orchestrator portal.  

Number format - The two supported formats for telephone numbers are E.164 or None.

   E.164 -  This is the number format used by all PSTN vendors and is generally recommended when supported by the customer's IP PBX or SBC.  All telephone numbers in all relevant fields (Request URI, From, To, PAI, etc.) will be formatted as E.164.

   None - This is same number format as E.164 without the leading + symbol. Number manipulations can be used to support other number formats. 

Tech Prefix - Used to guarantee uniqueness between different trunk groups.

Maximum Call Length - When configured with a number in seconds, this setting determines how long an established call can exist before the Orchestrator terminates the call.

No ring back timeout -  This setting as no impact on call processing.

Concurrent call limit (PORTS) - When configured with a number, this setting determines how many calls (established and calls in progress) can exist at the same time. When configured, this setting takes precedence over any associated capacity group's port limit setting.  Note:  Although not shown in the Enterprise Orchestrator portal, connections are often associated with capacity groups to set port and CPS limits that can be shared across all the customer's connections.

Calls per second limit (CPS) - When configured with a number, this setting determines how many  simultaneous call attempts can be processed each second. When configured, this setting takes precedence over any associated CPS setting in an associated capacity group.  

Nat traversal -  When enabled, if the source IP address of SIP messages is different then the IP address in the Request URI of the SIP message then the Orchestrator will use the source IP address for all SIP responses.  This situation can occur when the customer IP PBX or SBC is behind a NAT/Firewall that does not properly support SIP Inspection. When disabled, IP address/FQDNs for the SIP messages will be used.

Trunk monitoring - When enabled, the Orchestrator will send SIP Option messages to each configured trunk every 60 seconds.  If there is no response (typically a SIP 200OK) to three consecutive SIP Option messages, then the Orchestrator will "logically down" the trunk.  No SIP messages (expect Option messages) will be sent to a trunk that is "logically down".   

Send NPDI - This option is rarely used on inbound connections.

Preserve caller ID - When enabled, any caller name in the From field of the vendor's SIP Invite is passed to the From field of the SIP Invite sent to the inbound connection. When not enabled, any caller name in From field of the vendor SIP Invite is removed before the SIP Invite is sent to the inbound connection.  Typically this feature is enabled.

Secure RTP - This option is typically used with TLS to encrypt the RTP media between the Peeredge Orchestrator and the customer's media endpoint.

Dynamic transcoding -  When enabled, the Peeredge Orchestrator will dynamically transcode the RTP media between difference codecs when there is no mutually acceptable codec in the SDP offer and answer.  This configuration is rarely used as all PSTN vendors support G.711u (PCMU) and G.711a (PCMA) and nearly all customer IP PBXs and SBCs support these codecs as well.

Codec limit - When enabled and dynamic transcoding is disabled, the Peeredge Orchestrator will filter (only include) codecs in SIP/SDP messages to the customer's IP PBX or SBC that are 1) selected in the Codec limit configuration and 2) listed in the SIP/SDP messages from the PSTN vendor. When enabled and dynamic transcoding is enabled, all codecs selected in the Codec limit configuration are included in the SIP/SDP messages to the customer's IP PBX or SBC regardless of the codecs listed in the SIP/SDP messages from the PSTN vendor.

Performance Notifications - See Triggers.

Expert Settings - This feature allow the Orchestrator to apply number manipulations to calling party numbers (ANIs), called party numbers (DNISs) or change SIP response codes.  For example, if a customer's IP PBX only supports 5 digit numbers, a manipulation could be added to converted the DNIS of all incoming calls from an 11 digit number to the last 5 digits of the incoming number (1NPANXXXXXX).

Route Advance Logic -  If a SIP response (failure response codes only) to a SIP Invite from the customer's IP PBX or SBC is included the Route Advance Logic's regular expression, then the Orchestrator will route advance the call by sending a SIP Invite to the next available trunk in the inbound connection.  If no more trunks are available, then the call attempt will be terminated.