Dial Peers

What is Dial Peer?

This topic describes dial peers and their applications.
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What is a Dial Peer?
A dial peer is an addressable call endpoint.
Dial peers establish logical connections, called call
legs, to complete an end-to-end call.
Cisco voice-enabled routers support two types of
dial peers:
POTS dial peers: Connect to a traditional telephony
network
VoIP di al peers: Connect over a packet network

When a call is placed, an edge device generates dialed digits as a way of signaling where the
call should terminate. When these digits enter a router voice port, the router must have a way to
decide whether the call can be routed, and where the call can be sent. The router does this by
looking through a list of dial peers.
A dial peer is an addressable call endpoint. The address is called a destination pattern and is
configured in every dial peer. Destination patterns can point to one telephone number only or to
a range of telephone numbers. Destination patterns use both explicit digits and wildcard
variables to define a telephone number or range of numbers.
The router uses dial peers to establish logical connections. These logical connections, known as
call legs, are established in either an inbound or outbound direction.
Dial peers define the parameters for the calls that they match. For example, if a call is
originating and terminating at the same site, and is not crossing through slow speed WAN links,
then the call can cross the local network uncompressed and without special priority. A call that
originates locally and crosses the WAN link to a remote site may require compression with a
specific codec. In addition, this call may require that voice activity detection (VAD) be turned
on, and will need to receive preferential treatment by specifying a higher priority level.
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Cisco Systems voice-enabled routers support two types of dial peers:
Plain old telephone service (POTS) dial peers: Connect to a traditional telephony
network, such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or a PBX, or to a
telephony edge device, such as a telephone or fax machine. POTS dial peers perform these
functions:
Provide an address (telephone number or range of numbers) for the edge network
or device
Point to the specific voice port that connects the edge network or device
Voice over IP (VoIP) dial peers: Connect over a packet network. VoIP dial peers perform
these functions:
Provide a destination address (telephone number or range of numbers) for the edge
device that is located across the network
Associate the destination address with the next hop router or destination router,
depending on the technology used

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Dial Peer

In the figure, the telephony device connects to the Cisco Systems voice-enabled router POTS
dial. The POTS dial peer configuration includes the telephone number of the telephony device
and the voice port to which it is attached. The router knows where to forward incoming calls
for that telephone number.
The Cisco voice-enabled router VoIP dial peer is connected to the packet network. The VoIP
dial peer configuration includes the destination telephone number (or range of numbers) and the
next hop or destination voice-enabled router network address.
Follow the steps to place a VoIP call:
How to Place a VoIP Call
Step Action
1 Configure the source router with a compatible dial peer that specifies the recipient
destination address
2 Configure the recipient router with a POTS dial peer that specifies which voice port
the router uses to forward the voice call


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Plain Old Telephone Service Dial Peers
This topic describes how to configure POTS dial peers.
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POTS Dial Peers

Before the configuration of Cisco IOS dial peers can begin, the user must have a good
understanding of where the edge devices reside, what type of connections need to be made
between these devices, and what telephone numbering scheme is applied to the devices.
Follow the steps to configure POTS dial peers:
How to Configure POTS Dial Peers
Step Action
1 Configure a POTS dial peer at each router or gateway where edge telephony
devices connect to the network
2 Use the destinationpattern command in the dial peer to configure the telephone
number
3 Use the port command to specify the physical voice port that the POTS telephone
is connected to.
The dial peer type will be specified as POTS because the edge device is directly connected to a
voice port and the signaling must be sent from this port to reach the device. There are two basic
parameters that need to be specified for the device: the telephone number and the voice port.
When a PBX is connecting to the voice port, a range of telephone numbers can be specified.
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Example
The figure illustrates proper POTS dial peer configuration on a Cisco voice-enabled router. The
dial-peer voice 1 pots command notifies the router that dial peer 1 is a POTS dial peer with a
tag of 1. The destination-pattern 7777 command notifies the router that the attached telephony
device terminates calls destined for telephone number 7777. The port 1/0/0 command notifies
the router that the telephony device is plugged into module 1, voice interface card (VIC) slot 0,
voice port 0.

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VoIP Dial Peers
This topic describes how to configure VoIP dial peers.
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VoIP Dial Peers

The administrator must know how to identify the far-end voice-enabled device that will
terminate the call. In a small network environment, the device may be the IP address of the
remote device. In a large environment, the device may mean pointing to a Cisco CallManager
or gatekeeper for address resolution and call admission control (CAC) to complete the call.
You must follow these steps to configure VoIP dial peers:
How to Configure VoIP Dial Peers
Step Action
1 Configure the path across the network for voice data
2 Specify the dial peer as a VoIP dial peer
4 Use the destination-pattern command to configure a range of numbers
reachable by the remote router or gateway
5 Use the session target command to specify an IP address of the terminating
router or gateway
6 Use the remote device loopback address as the IP address
The dial peer is specified as a VoIP dial peer, which alerts the router that it must process a call
according to the various parameters that are specified in the dial peer. The dial peer must then
package it as an IP packet for transport across the network. Specified parameters may include
the codec used compression (VAD, for example), or marking the packet for priority service.
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The destination-pattern parameter configured for this dial peer is typically a range of numbers
that are reachable via the remote router or gateway.
Because this dial peer points to a device across the network, the router needs a destination IP
address to put in the IP packet. The session target parameter allows the administrator to specify
either an IP address of the terminating router or gateway, or another device; for example, a
gatekeeper or Cisco CallManager that can return an IP address of that remote terminating
device.
To determine which IP address a dial peer should point to, it is recommended that you use a
loopback address. The loopback address is always up on a router, as long as the router is
powered on and the interface is not administratively shut down. If an interface IP address is
used instead of the loopback, and that interface goes down, the call will fail even if there is an
alternate path to the router.
Example
The figure illustrates the proper VoIP dial peer configuration on a Cisco voice-enabled router.
The dial-peer voice 2 voip command notifies the router that dial peer 2 is a VoIP dial peer with
a tag of 2. The destination-pattern 8888 command notifies the router that this dial peer defines
an IP voice path across the network for telephone number 8888. The session target
ipv4:10.18.0.1 command defines the IP address of the router that is connected to the remote
telephony device.

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Destination-Pattern Options
This topic describes destination-pattern options and the applicable shortcuts.
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Destination-Pattern Options

The destination pattern associates a telephone number with a given dial peer. The destination
pattern also determines the dialed digits that the router collects and forwards to the remote
telephony interface, such as a PBX, Cisco CallManager, or the PSTN. You must configure a
destination pattern for each POTS and VoIP dial peer that you define on the router.
The destination pattern can indicate a complete telephone number or a partial telephone number
with wildcard digits; it can also point to a range of numbers defined in a variety of ways.
Destination-pattern options include:
Plus (+): An optional character that indicates an E.164 standard number. E.164 is the
International Telecommunication Union Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-
T) recommendation for the international public telecommunication numbering plan. The
plus sign in front of a destination-pattern string specifies that the string must conform to
Recommendation E.164.
String: A series of digits specifying the E.164 or private dialing-plan telephone number.
The examples below show the use of special characters that are often found in destination
patterns strings:
Asterisk (*) and pound sign (#) appear on standard touch-tone dial pads. These
characters may need to be used when passing a call to an automated application that
requires these characters to signal the use of a special feature. For example, when
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calling an interactive voice response (IVR) system that requires a code for access, the
number dialed might be 5551212888#, which would initially dial the telephone
number 5551212 and input a code of 888 followed by the pound key to terminate the
IVR input query.
Comma (,) inserts a one-second pause between digits. The comma can be used, for
example, where a 9 is dialed to signal a PBX that the call should be processed by the
PSTN. The 9 is followed by a comma to give the PBX time to open a call path to the
PSTN, after which the remaining digits will be played out. An example of this string is
9,5551212.
Period (.) matches any single entered digit (this character is used as a wildcard). The
wildcard is used to specify a group of numbers that may be accessible via a single
destination router, gateway, PBX or Cisco Call Manager. Because the period
(commonly referred to as a dot), indicates a single digit of 0 to 9, this limits how
efficiently ranges of numbers are used. A pattern of 200. allows for 10 uniquely
addressed devices, where a pattern of 20.. can point to 100 devices. If one site has the
numbers 2000 through 2049, and another site has the numbers 2050 through 2099, then
the bracket notation would be more efficient.
Brackets ([ ]) indicate a range. A range is a sequence of characters that are enclosed in
the brackets. Only single numeric characters from 0 to 9 are allowed in the range. In
the previous example, the bracket notation could be used to specify exactly which
range of numbers is accessible through each dial peer. For example, the first site
pattern would be 20[0-4]., and the second site pattern would be 20[5-9]. The
bracket notation offers much more flexibility in how numbers can be assigned.
T: An optional control character indicating that the destination-pattern value is a
variable-length dial string. In cases where callers may be dialing local, national or
international numbers, the destination pattern must provide for a variable-length dial plan.
If a particular voice gateway has access to the PSTN for local calls, and access to a
transatlantic connection for international calls, then calls being routed to that gateway will
have a varying number of dialed digits. A single dial peer with a destination pattern of .T
could support the different call types. The interdigit timeout determines when a string of
dialed digits is complete. The router continues to collect digits until there is an interdigit
pause longer than the configured value, which by default is 10 seconds.
When the calling party finishes entering dialed digits, there is a pause equal to the interdigit
timeout value before the router processes the call. The calling party can immediately terminate
the interdigit timeout by entering the pound (#) character, which is the default termination
character. Because the default interdigit timer is set to 10 seconds, users may experience a long
call setup delay.
Note Cisco IOS software does not check the validity of the E.164 telephone number; it accepts
any series of digits as a valid number.
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Example
Example: Destination-Pattern Options
Destination Pattern Matching Telephone Numbers
5551234 Matches one telephone number exactly, 5551234.
This is typically used when there is a single device, such as a telephone or
fax, connected to a voice port.
555[1-3] Matches a seven-digit telephone number where the first three digits are 555,
the fourth digit can be a 1, 2, or 3, and the last digits can be any valid digits.
This type of destination pattern is used where telephone number ranges are
assigned to specific sites. In this example, the destination pattern is used in a
small site that does not need more than thirty numbers assigned.
.T Matches any telephone number that has at least one digit and can vary in
length from 1 to 32 digits total.
This destination pattern is used for a dial peer that services a variable-length
dial plan, such as local, national, and international calls. It can also be used as
a default destination pattern so that any calls that do not match a more specific
pattern will match this one and can be directed to an operator.


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What is the Default Dial Peer?
This topic describes the default dial peer.
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Default Dial Peer 0

When a matching inbound dial peer is not found, the router resorts to the default dial peer.
Note Default dial peers are used for inbound matches only. They are not used to match outbound
calls that do not have a dial peer configured.
The default dial peer is referred to as dial-peer 0.
Example
In the figure, only one-way dialing is configured. The caller at extension 7777 can call
extension 8888 because there is a VoIP dial peer configured on router 1 to route the call across
the network. There is no VoIP dial peer configured on router 2 to point calls across the network
towards router 1. Therefore, there is no dial peer on router 2 that will match the calling number
of extension 7777 on the inbound call leg. If no incoming dial peer matches the calling number,
the inbound call leg automatically matches to a default dial peer (POTS or VoIP).
Note There is an exception to the previous statement. Cisco voice and/or dial platforms, such as
the AS53xx and AS5800, require that a configured inbound dial peer be matched for
incoming POTS calls to be accepted as voice calls. If there is no inbound dial peer match,
the call is treated and processed as a dial-up (modem) call.
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Dial peer 0 for inbound VoIP peers has the following configuration:
any codec
ip precedence 0
vad enabled
no rsvp support
fax-rate service
Dial peer 0 for inbound POTS peers has the following configuration:
no ivr application
You cannot change the default configuration for dial peer 0. Default dial peer 0 fails to
negotiate non-default capabilities or services. When the default dial peer is matched on a VoIP
call, the call leg that is set up in the inbound direction uses any supported codec for voice
compression, based on the requested codec capability coming from the source router. When a
default dial peer is matched, the voice path in one direction may have different parameters than
the voice in the return direction. This may cause one side of the connection to report good-
quality voice, while the other side reports poor-quality voice. For example, the outbound dial
peer has VAD disabled, but the inbound call leg is matched against the default dial peer, which
has VAD enabled. In this example, VAD is on in one direction and off in the return direction.
When the default dial peer is matched on an inbound POTS call leg, there is no default IVR
application with the port; as a result, the user gets a dial tone and proceeds with dialed digits.
The use of a catch all dial peer that will match all calls can prevent the use of the default dial
peer and send any matches to a default location like the operator or an automated attendant
(AA).


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