# Line Groups for Outdial Functions

Use the information in the following paragraphs for entries on the NuPoint Voice Worksheet and Outdial Line Group Worksheet.

## Guidelines for Port Allocation

The server requires at least one port to outdial calls for paging, message delivery, and call placement. Outdialing ports must be dedicated exclusively; this means that there will be fewer ports available to accept incoming calls. If enough ports are not reserved to handle the outdial traffic, however, the requests are queued, and users do not receive message waiting notification or messages in a timely manner. Before assigning pagers or message delivery to mailboxes, you should analyze call traffic flow and decide how much of the server you wish to devote to outdials.

Each call to a radio pager ties up an outdialing port for less than a minute; queuing becomes a problem only when there is a large number of users with pagers. Message delivery can require more ports than paging, since each port is tied up for the entire time that the user is logged in. For example, if a user does more than simply play the unplayed message that activated message delivery, the outdialing port can be in use for a considerable amount of time. Call placement is more like message delivery because ports are in use for more time than for paging.

Note: The server installation site, as the calling party, is responsible for any charges that accrue when paging, message delivery or call placement calls are made to numbers outside of the PBX system.

## Line Group Information

All server ports are assigned to line groups. Each line group, in turn, is assigned to a single application, and any configuring that is done for that application applies to every port in the line group. The number of ports in each line group depends on how heavy the phone traffic is expected to be for the particular application.

## Line Group Number

Each line group is represented by a discrete number. Valid line group numbers are 1 through 24.

## Group Name

The group name should identify the line group’s purpose. For example, “Pager Outdialer.”

## Lines in Group

You identify each line (or port) in a group by a triplet, which represent the module, slot, and port. Module refers to a CPU, the server’s main processor. Modules are numbered at 1. Slots are numbered at 0. Ports are also numbered from 0 and the upper limit depends on the port limit of your system licensing.

For more information about line groups, see About Line Groups.

## Call Placement

To use call placement, you must change the dialing plan. Use the letter T as a dialing plan entry. For example, if you entered T in position 8 of the plan, users would enter 8 from the keypad to activate the call placement function. You can use T in any position of the dialing plan, but only once. See About Dialing Plans for more information.

## Pager Systems Supported

You can configure the server with up to 16 different outdial access codes, each identified by an index number (0-15). Each outdial line group does not need to support all access codes; for example, a line group dedicated to radio paging for the local area code does not need to support an access code designed for long distance call placement. Assigning only the required access codes to an outdial line group makes it easier to plan and control traffic and prevent abuse.

The mailbox configuration specifies these access codes for use in placing internal calls, unbilled external calls, and external calls charged to a billing number. You enter the appropriate pager system numbers as the internal outdial index, billed outdial index, and unbilled outdial index.

The Pager Systems supported parameter assigns specific pager systems to the line group that is currently selected. You should analyze your needs carefully before assigning pager systems. For example, if your server will have message delivery, call placement, and outdialing to radio pagers, you should take into account the fact that a single message delivery can take several minutes (while the user plays the message, answers it, etc.), while activating a radio pager takes a fraction of that time. Therefore, you might want to assign pager systems that outdial call placement or message delivery calls to a larger line group.

Parent topic: Configuration Overview