Forum Discussion
Integrate a standard MLTS / PBX with Teams for purposes of E911
I understand that MS recently announced (April 2020) enhanced integration with Teams that provides "Dispatchable Location" to the 911 operator (PSAP Public Safety Answering Point) when a caller dials 911. Dispatchable location includes data elements like name, address, floor, room number, etc.
My question is can a "non-Microsoft" MLTS / PBX be integrated with Teams if there was some sort of gateway / SBC in the middle?
Thank you!
Ron Grau
4 Replies
rongrau Teams voice comes in two forms: Calling Plans and Direct Routing. To your question:
- In the Calling Plans scenario - No. All phone system components are completely located in Office 365 so you have no "access" to get a Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, etc PBX natively talking to Teams DIDs/DDIs.
- Minor exception - Calling DIDs is very much available between the various platforms, but it gets treated as a regular PSTN call. That means minute charges.
- In the Direct Routing scenario - Yes. A Session Border Controller is deployed into your telephony environment, and that SBC is the "glue" that allows you to route calls amongst the various platforms.
To the E-911 scenario:
Neither Teams nor your SBC will natively provide location information services for your non-Microsoft platforms. The non Microsoft platforms require their own location information configuration, such as Cisco Emergency Responder for Cisco Call Manager deployments. Additionally, depending upon your telephony environment (PRI vs SIP Trunks), you may need to implement different configurations and carrier features (PS-ALI/PS-ANI) in order to properly support a "dispatchable location". It's a very complex topic, especially when existing MLTS systems are in place.
In the end, Teams provides detailed location info only to Teams clients. SBCs just route the calls, either between internal systems or between internal/external systems.
Hi Trevor and thank you for your quick response. I'm on a workgroup that represents the hospitality industry (hotels) along with hoteliers and industry service providers, and we're trying to solve the requirements around the new Ray Baum Act that goes into effect early next year (Dispatchable Location). As you can imagine, the industry has everything from a Mitel in the basement to a pure cloud voice solution, and so we are trying to figure out a way to normalize what gets sent to the PSAP. Again, many thanks for your response and let me know if you have any brilliant ideas as to how to accomplish this. 🙂 All the best! Ron
rongrau Ray Baum's Law - I know what exactly what you are referring to.
For Teams with SIP trunks, you can use the Teams Location Information Service in the cloud to populate PIDF-LO info in the 911 call, and use the SBC to route those calls to a SIP-based carrier, such as 911Enable/WestUC. For Teams with PRI trunks, you'll need to utilize a ELIN (Emergency Location Identification Number) solution (usually part of the SBC or a third-party solution) to take the PIDF-LO data and change it into a specific outbound Caller-ID. Then your telephony carrier looks at the caller-ID of the call, finds the civic address (and location info that you prepopulated with the carrier), and then routes the call containing the proper location info. The latter scenario is the tried and true PS-ALI/PS-ANI setup which has existed for quite some time.
For other MLTS systems - either digital or IP - each vendor will have their own configuration (and limits) for determining endpoint location and mapping that to a dispatchable location, and thus PS-ANI. = It's entirely plausible you may have to perform equipment and/or software upgrades on those MLTS system in order to bring them up to a point where you'll be able to configure items to meet compliance.
Given that you have multiple vendor solutions, you may want to look at a solution like RedSky's E911 Manager or West's Emergency Gateway. Those solutions are typically multi-vendor capable and may get you closer to operating a single solution.
- In the Calling Plans scenario - No. All phone system components are completely located in Office 365 so you have no "access" to get a Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, etc PBX natively talking to Teams DIDs/DDIs.
